Knights of King
by LittleDemonKicks
Summary: Through out the new age of Space, there has been a race to find or create the best weapon possible. Planets and lands from all around the galaxies were eager to be the first. Then they emerged. Gifts like no other, gifts that greatly resembled alien species were being wielded by none other then a group of teens. What gave them these gifts? They'd like to know as well.
1. Regulus the little king

The young boy was quick to learn that trust was never just given to you, not even by you family. No, you had to earn it. Harsh as it sounds, the young child understood that instantly. He stood, in his baggy trousers and pale blue shirt, with wrists tied loosely by rope and feet bare. He stood there, bottom lip quivering and snot running from his nose. He was just a boy. Barely age seven. He should not be crying, there were things you learned on Gaelu, things you learned to survive. One past the age of four rarely shed a tear. They were laughing at him now, pointing and jeering as the boy cried silently.

Then suddenly the crowd parted. A man, mature and with grey hairs beginning to show, was walking through the part in the sea of people. He was grinning, and holding up a stick with a number pasted on it.

"I bid 6,000 Silver Lira." He announced.

The crowd was silent, whispering amongst themselves. What kind of person on Gaelu had that kind of money? Only the richests of businessmen could casually toss that much around. And for a boy who was in tears on the auction stage? Things just didn't seem right.

The strange man produced a pen. "Boy," He called to the child on the stage. "Follow the light with your eyes."

Then the pen began a dazzling display of lights. There were different ones but his eyes could keep several in their sights time after time. A few seconds had passed when the lights disappeared. The strange man pocketed the light pen and nodded eagerly.

"I change my bid, 6,000 Gold Lira." He shouted to gleefully to the auctioneer.

Everyone was silent. The boy sniffled, his snot crusting along his upper lip.

The auctioneer blinked and looked around the crowd. "6,000 Gold Lira for the boy, do I hear a 7,000?" He sweept the crowd with his eyes before slamming the mallet onto the pad infront of him. "The boy goes to…"

The man gave a small bow. "Director Palace, pleased to meet you."

Whispers spring up instantly at the name.

The auctioneer nodded quickly, the name striking fear. "Yes, the boy goes to Director Palace."

Two brute men grab the boy and set to drag him off. Palace holds his hand up. "Stop, you'll hurt him doing that." He sighs. "Honestly, don't you brutes know anything about handling children."

They share a look and shrug.

"Untie him would you, he is under my care now, I refuse to let another bruise appear on his body from you fools." Palace instructed.

The men pull the ropes from the boy's wrist. As they do the boy's eyes never leave the strange man's. They seem to be in a staring contest, neither one willing to look away for a moment. The boy knew the look in the man's eyes, it was pride. Something he'd seen only a few times in his father's eyes before that very man had slapped a number and his lowest price and shipped him off the be auctioned. That look made him weary, what did this man see in him? Did he plan to take him away and to some place where he could be sold for an even higher price?

Palace extended his hand to the boy. "Come along son, we've got much work to do at home."

The boy's eyes widen at the nickname given to him. Son? When was the last time he was called that? Never. Maybe in the hospital when he was born, maybe one of nurses had said "you've got a son." but that nickname had never left his father's, or mother's, lips. It was a foreign word.

The boy stepped off the stage, the crowd scooting back from him as he walked. As he came to a halt in front of Palace he stared up at the strange man. Question after question running through his mind.

"What's your name?" Palace asked in a kind tone, his body bending slightly.

The boy looked up at him. "Agnidev."

Palace nodded. "Well Agnidev, I think that you'll very much like your new home."

With that he turned and began to walk away from the auction stage. Agnidev stood in his shadow, walking the strange man who'd just bought his life walk away. He turned over his shoulder, walking a man in uniform had the 6,000 Gold Lira over to the accountant for the auctions. His eyes fell onto someone he hadn't expected to be there. The man who was his father. Aiden stood with his crisp jacket and nicely button up shirt, he was a man who demanded attention. And being one of the wealthier coal miners, it was a shock to see him standing there. But even more shocking was when the treasurer handed over the Lira without missing a beat. His father, Aiden, ducked his head to could the money quickly and then slipping it into his inside coat pocket. Turning away from the auction stage, his business was done.

Agnidev turned as well, catching up to Palace whose legs were much longer and could move faster than his own. One of the men in uniforms opened the door to a sleek vehicle and waited till Palace and the boy were inside. When the door shut Agnidev jumped slightly. Palace let his gaze fall to him.

"Agnidev, my son, listen as I tell you this." Palace whispered. "Inside you there is great power, power that no man has been able to wield until now; you are one of the first of your kind. Do you understand me?"

Agnidev blinked. "Is that why I was given away? Because I'm different then my brothers?"

Palace shook his head. "No my son, you were sold off to make money, I regret to say that on planets like Gaelu it happens often. When sickness strikes, like it has now, they have to give up things to pay of the medical bills."

Agnidev nodded. "Where are we going?"

Palace leaned back into his seat. "Home."

Happy images of a grand house with waiting maids and butlers entered his mind. If this man had enough money to carelessly throw 6,000 Gold Lira away on a boy, his house must be huge! Agnidev found himself smiling as he thought of what kind of rooms there would be to explore and what kind of games he could play there. Would there be other children? Did this Palace go around and save children from auctions like he had with Agnidev?

The car slowed to a stop and the door was opened again. Agnidev jumped out, eyes shining as he searched for the huge house that the man must live in. Palace stepped out after him. He waved him forward, urging him to follow to the pod. Even as a child on Gaelu he knew a spaceship pod when he saw one. They stepped aboard, the interior better than any pod he'd glanced in or been in before. THen they were moving, leaving the atmosphere on a smooth ride.

Palace hit a button that glowed a steady light purple. "King, this is Jester; we're on our way home."

A voice with slight static responded. "The court is ready, Jester. Welcome home."

The light flicked off and the pod began slowing down as it reached space. He was pressed to the windows, eager to see what lay amongst the stars he'd looked at every night.

"There it is my son, your new home." Palace smiled, waving his arm with a flourish.

Agnidev's eyes swept to the other window. He froze. Sitting in space was a colossal ship. The entire bottom was flat, serving as a base for the city on board. There were green plants, trees and bushes that could be seen through the glass outer wall from the pod. Tall buildings were raised up in the bubble like roof. It was unbelievable. It was surreal. It was his home.


	2. Chapter 1

Life aboard Battleship King wasn't bad at all. It was infinitely times better then working at a shipbuilding site or digging up coal from beneath the crust of some miserable planet that they were lucky enough to find work on. Still, the thing about life on King had some drawbacks. Like if you managed to piss of the wrong person, you would find yourself running around the space city, praying that you didn't slip and that you'd make it to safety. Sadly, running fast over a great distance was not Leo's forte.

The soldiers caught up to him in time, sure he'd led them around the city for a while. They'd seen many wonderful aspects that they didn't get to on a daily run; perhaps they should thank him. They'd passed the Grand Central, the pristine white entrance where new cadets and new citizens arrived when they came to live on King. They'd taken their run through the Lowland cities, or the Graffiti lands if you so choose to call it that, they'd made their way into the shops where the fresh smells of stews, pies, and pastries wafted from shop windows and into the air. Yet somehow they'd found themselves closer to the barracks then they'd started. Leo cursed in his head, he'd hoped to take the run past the barracks and down to the gardens, least there he could die with a happy sight.

When they finally caught him, they tackled him. Not one, not two, but three soldiers lunged and tackled him to the ground. As he hit he bit his tongue, not the smartest move at all but maybe it would keep them busy. As he was pulled to his feet he relished the metallic taste in his mouth.

One of the soldiers steps forward. "Name yourself, boy." He ordered.

Leo glanced up at the man. "Leon."

"Last name?" The man growled.

Leo spit at the ground. "What's it to you?"

The soldier pulled back his fist and nailed a punch in Leo's gut. He gasped, air leaving his body for seconds before he was able to control his breathing again.

Suddenly there were more soldiers, only these ones were dressed neatly. Leo's brain started working, putting the pieces together and he stood up straighter.

"Oh great." he muttered, mainly to himself but the soldiers holding him cast a small glance his way.

The soldiers in their neat outfits formed a single line and allowed a man to walk through. He had his hands behind his back, a frown on his face.

"Leo." The man said.

Leo ducked his head. "Hey."

The man sighed. "Honestly my son, is this becoming a weekly routine?"

The boy shrugged as best he could as he was still restrained by the soldiers. "Who knows, maybe I'll amp it up to daily. Gets the men running."

A girl steps up beside the man and a look of disappointment is directed at Leo. Oddly enough, he say the look before her striking blue hair. He gapes and glares at the man.

"C'mon Palace, you brought her!" He snaps.

Palace shrugs. "She was quite persuasive."

The girl glares at Leo. "Really Lee? Really."

He ducks his head, he hated when she called him Lee, it shortened the already short name and made him feel like he was annoying, like she couldn't say his name properly because she didn't want to waste the time. He sighs. Palace must have given a signal before the soldiers holding Leo let him go. He stood straighter and nearly flinched as he caught the look of the girl again.

She crossed her arms. "You're impossible, you know that!" She snapped.

Leo sighed. "I know."

She let her arms relax, but didn't uncross them. "Leo, why are you so persistent to annoy the soldiers as they train?"

He shrugged. "Not sure, it's fun."

"It's annoying." She corrected and let her arms fall to the sides. "Are you coming home?"

He nods. "Yeah, following you."

She nods back and turns. Walking away from the barracks the two begin the descent into the city of Kingdom. Often, the name of the city made him laugh. Honestly, a city called Kingdom? How odd was that? Of course the ship they were on was called King, but that didn't mean that everything had to follow along with that name. Oh wait, the ship being under the control of Director Palace meant that exact thing.

A few whistles reach his ears and he attunes himself back into reality. There's the girl, walking ahead of him like before; only something is off this time. Her arms are held tightly to her body as though she's trying to make herself smaller, not as noticeable. A few of the more daring soldiers actually call out to her.

Leo takes several large steps and is beside her, hand grasping her bicep. "You wonder why I piss of the soldiers often, I wonder why you force yourself to come up here."

She turns, ready to retort to his words but stops herself. "I need to make myself stronger, strong enough to ignore all of the words shouted at me."

He rolls his eyes. "You're impossible."

"And you're annoying." She responds and stops. "C'mon, we can jump the rest of the way."

With that she leaps over the railing and falls straight for the ground. Leo rolls his eyes but follows her. Just as they near the ground one of the vents pushes a huge gust of air up at them. The girl tucks her body together and rolls to the ground, she springs to her feet and heads to the official doors on the base level. She types in her keycode, the doors sliding open without hesitation. As she sets through and Leo follows he's instantly glared up by several of the ship's officials.

"They're glaring at me." He whines to the girl.

She shrugs, pushing his poking finger away from her shoulder. "As they should, do you know how close you constantly come to revealing all of us?"

Leo sighs. "Yeah, I get it, I'm a horrible leader."

She spins. "No you're not, you're just an idiot."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No," Palace's voice rings throughout the hall. "But I have something that will. All Zodiac meeting in my office at 14:00, we've got business to discuss."

The girl sets her hand on his shoulder. "C'mon Lee, better go round up the others."

God, he hated when she called him that.


	3. Zubenelgenubi the southern claw

Jurda Tant was a bustling city that had many tourists every day, all cycle long. How exactly a tween boy had become one of the business men's goons was beyond many of the subordinates. The boy didn't do much either, he mainly remained in his room in the mansion or would walk the halls with a butler and guard in tow. But there was something about the boy that made you want to protect yourself against him.

"Fetch the boy!" Hal Kingsdon, the richest businessman in Jurda Tant and the boss of the largest gang, shouted.

His most trusted members, the three of them; stiffened as they realized his command. There was something that didn't sit right when that boy was in the room. He knew all of their secrets, no doubt he was good ears and was always listening when one spoke.

Hal Kingsdon leaned back in his chair, downing a shot. He slammed the glass onto the table, grinning at the man they held captive.

"So tell me," Hal drawled, already with a fresh glass in his hand. "What are the plans for the uprising you merchants are planning?"

The man shook his head. "There are no plans!"

"But there will be an uprising?" Hal hummed, staring into the glass of liquor.

The merchant seemed to be trembling. "No uprising that I know of...sir."

Hal slammed the still full glass onto the table. The jump from the merchant drew snickers from the men belonging to Kingsdon.

Hal leaned close, the merchant could smell the liquor on the man's breath. "Tell me what I need to know or else in a minutes time it will be ripped from your head without your consent."

Hal Kingsdon was a man that didn't look intimidating, but there was something about his voice, especially when it dropped low, that made you want to crawl away and hide. There were rumors that no man survived his questioning.

The doors open and Hal sits back. He extends a hand and a twelve year old boy with a shaved head walked forward.

Hal doesn't take his eyes from the merchant man. "I want information about the merchant uprising, give it to me."

The boy nodded and took the chair previously occupied by Hal. The boy seemed much too small in the chair previously occupied by the large man. The small tween boy was shivering in his rags that served as clothes. For all the rumors about the son that Hal Kingsdon had adopted, this boy didn't even resemble the boy from the rumors. The merchant laughed, this boy couldn't do anything to him. Hell, it looked like he would snap if he even tried to pick up a teacup. Hal had brought this toothpick of a boy to get information out of him? Ha! Fat chance.

The boy locked gazes with the merchant man and spoke. "There's a meeting going on in the basement of the Cider Store."

The merchant's eyes widen. "How did you know that?"

The boy blinked. "If one of the members doesn't show up they'll move to the hotel down on West Avenue."

Hal grinned. "Good boy, that's very good."

The merchant was no longer laughing. Where was this information coming from? He wasn't uttering a sound any longer.

The boy turned to Hal. "What exactly do you want to know?"

Hal hummed. "Find me his house."

The boy turned back to the merchant and let out a long breath. "He lives atop the Trading post."

"And his family?" Hal urged.

The boy shuts his eyes. "He has a wife, she's sick and needs medicine. He had two daughters who are taking care of her right now."

Hal chuckles. "Very good boy, you've earned yourself some meat."

The boy smiled before letting his face become blank again. "Sir, the uprising will be on the solstice."

Hal was no longer chuckling. "What?"

The boy nods. "They plan to bomb the harbor as ships come from Kante Ayane."

Hal was storming towards the shaking merchant man. "You'll wish you'd never been caught by me, understand!"

The merchant nodded, blubbering. "Don't touch my girls, please! I'll tell you anything!"

Hal snapped his fingers. "Boy, find me more information, I want to know where his daughters go everyday and what his wife is sick with. You have two minutes."

The boy's eyes shut and he reaches forward and grabs the merchant man's wrist tightly. For a toothpick of a kid, his grip was strong. "She's got Population Sickness, living in the drugs for most of her life."

"The girls, his daughters!" Hal snaps.

The merchant was thrashing about. "No! Leave them alone!"

The boy kept his tight grip. "They attend public school, at Andromeda on Sixth. For there they help in the trade shop before heading up to their rooms for dinner and homework."

Hal nods and snaps his fingers. Two of his men grab the merchant and hang him onto the wall, his wrists shackled. He hands, wailing for them not to touch his daughters. Hal grabs the boy by his shoulder and leads him out of the room.

Hal's grip is tight. "You did well, Zuben."

A shiver ran through the boy's body as Hal used his given name. It felt sickly to him now, such a name that was given to him with love did not suit him now. Not after he had broken families and condemned men to death countless times.


	4. Chapter 2

As if there wasn't enough to do in the day already, Palace had called them for a meeting. There stood thirteen teenagers, all over the age of fifteen, some just barely. The office was decorated like most, only the books were illuminated from their spines, glowing all different shades of blue. Deep, dark blues to pastel teals; Palace liked them all. The glow from the books cast odd shadows of color onto the teens at they stood before his desk.

Palace wasn't sitting there, no, he was atop a high ladder; doodling the constellations on his window. "You see, I've decided to take the next step in your training."

They all took in a breath.

Palace nodded. "You thirteen will finally give names to the faces that have covered the galaxy. Are you ready?"

A girl with black, curly hair tied up into two buns took a step forward. "Palace, do you think that we're ready?"

The man finally glanced away from his doodles. "My dear, no one can decide for you if you are ready, only you can decide that."

She nods and steps back in line.

"Palace, what would the next step be?" The blue haired girl asked.

He grinned. "I'm glad you asked Aquarius; you see, since you've all got much more training and experience then the soldiers on this ship, I decided that you all would become instructors."

They're silent. Leo snorts. "You're saying that I will be teaching the soldiers, that chased me for twenty miles this morning, how to fight?"

Palace sighed. "Yes, well, let's not make a habit of them chasing you, yes?"

Leo was grinning. "Oh man I could get used to ordering them around."

The man beside him glaces over. "Leo, you realize that you've always held a higher rank than them, right?"

The other tenses. "Well Libra, when one is locked inside a section for most of his life he tends to forget that."

"Lee, you were the only one lock inside; you broke rules and were grounded." Aquarius mutters.

Leo frowns. "Grounded?"

Palace clears his throat. "Yes, grounded. I was advised that it was the easiest way to get through to children and teenagers."

Some of the teens there snort and are quick to cover their mouths. Leo tosses his hands into the air and sighs. Palace smirks, fighting off a smile, and taps his desk a few times. Several holograms shoot between them.

"These are your schedules for the next week, try out teaching and if it doesn't work; we'll move on." Palace orders.

They all extend their wrists, items like a watch adone them and the holograms are sucked inside. They tap the faces and scroll through the schedules, memorizing them.

Palace sets his hands on the desk. "Hear me when I say this my children, this is not a mission. Mistakes can be made and they can be corrected."

They nod and turn to leave.

"Aquarius, stay behind for a moment." Palace calls quickly.

She nods and faces his desk once more. The others leave and once the door shuts Leo is quick to wave Libra to him.

"Hoist me up." He whispers.

Libra sighs as though he's tired. "You're going to be killed if she knows that you listened in on this."

Leo shrugs, setting his foot in the hold Libra made with his hands. He's forced upwards and reaches out to grab one of the piles shooting from the wall to the ceiling. Waving a thanks to Libra the other boy continues back towards their rooms, acting as though he didn't just help Leo sneak into Palace's office.

Leo weaved between poles and slipped behind one of the walls. There was a small catwalk up there for maintenance on the pipes, perfect for his needs. Just as he got settles Aquarius slammed her hands onto the desk.

"Tell me Palace, I deserve to know!" The blue haired girl snapped.

The man was seated in his chair for once, a look of pain on his face. "My dear, that is information that is beyond my reach."

She groaned. "How? You're second only to the Commander in terms of position, no one can tell you no! So why, why can't I know where I come from?"

Palace sighed. "Because, even I do not know."

She pushes away from the table. "Fine."

As she walked away from the desk Leo moved faster. Jumping to the floor outside the office just as she stepped through the sliding door.

He grinned. "So, any secret information I can know about?"

She ignored him and walked past. That was something that wasn't right.

He frowned, following quickly. "Hey, you good?"

She responded by shoving him off the side. Of course that was uncalled for. He hit the ground rolling, jumping to his feet and extending his arms to the side.

"What was that for, hu?" He shouted at her.

She whipped around and glared at him. "Don't bother me."

Her words were icy. Even from a distance Leo felt a chill.

"Damn," He muttered to himself. "She's pissed."

He made it back to the rooms before she did. As he entered Libra looked up.

"You're still in one piece." He mentioned.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You don't say."

Libra shut his book. "What did you overhear?"

Shaking his head Leo faces the door, waiting for Aquarius to come in. "Nothing, they were done before I could listen in." He crosses his arms. "But when Aquarius left, she didn't seem happy."

The girl with the double buns clicks her tongue. "So, don't bother Aqua. Got it."

Leo nods. "Pass it on, Cancer."

The girl gives a mock salute before jumping from her seat and running towards the shut doors. She is quick to pass the message on to the others, just as asked. Leo keeps up his position in the front room, always keeping an eye on the door. Soon enough, enough time has passed for the lights to dim, signifying that the night hours were approaching. He'd made coffee and then some tea for when she came back. Depending on her mood she would need the energy or the relief, he wasn't sure yet.

The lights had gone fully out by the time the doors slid one. A blue haired girl walked in, her feet shuffling across the smooth floor. Relief, Leo decided instantly. He poured the steaming liquid into a mug and dropped two packets into the water, strong; just how she liked it. Her hands took the cup gratefully.

She sipped, wrinkled her nose, and snatched the lemon and honey from the counter. As she fixed her tea even more to her liking Leo was urging her to a seat. God, she looked like she was going to fall over any second. She takes the seat and sips the tea quietly, hiding almost behind the mug as she drank.

Leo runs his finger over a crack in the table. "Aqua,"

She cuts him off. "I know you heard."

He winces. "Sorry."

"You're an idiot, you know that. It was a private conversation, that why only I stayed back." She mutters into her mug.

Leo shrugs. "You know me, I can't help listening in to information."

She sets the cup down. "That's you alright, annoying as ever."

He smirks. "Annoying or amazing as getting information, the world may never know."

She frowns. "No, because if you ever listen in on a private conversation of mine again; the world will never hear from you again."

With that she stood, taking the mug with her, and headed towards her room. Leo was frozen in his chair, it'd been ages since she'd made a death threat to him. Grinning he watched her go into the room, he'd just have to get better at being silent.


	5. Sadasluud the double star

The pod landed on the large battleship. Guards in purple robes with high powered swords hung at their sides. Some of the top guards from this ship were there, they'd be hired by this man. Finally a man stepped out, in his arm was a bundle wrapped in dark purple cloth.

"My lord, I cannot take this child." A man apologizes.

The man with the bundle frowns. "You can, and you will."

With a sigh he takes the bundle from the man. "My lord, the contract…"

A pen appears in the man's hand and he is quick to sign.

"With this seal the daughter of Weldon Ayane, ninth king to take the throne of Kante Ayane, will be given to the custody of Chas Simril, Director of Battleship King. She will live here on this ship until her services may be needed on Kante Ayane. No resistance is to come should her rightful family bring her to the throne."

Simril bows his head. "Yes, my lord."

Weldon Ayane stands to his full height. "I have two sons older than her, both are strong and healthy boys. I do not see a future where she would live on Kante Ayane."

He turns, a flurry of purple and gold robes in his wake as he steps back onto his ship. The crest was glowing on the side, a sign that made any smuggler in his right mind turn away. The guards of Kante Ayane were feared and for good reason. Simril looks down at the baby in his arms, she was a small thing, pudgy in the cheeks and arms. Wrapped around her blanket was a gold chain.

Pulling the chain off he sat in a chair to examine it. It was a sturdy gold chain, several small lumps of raw crystal glowing purple was set into the ring of a charm. Inside the ring was the Kante Ayane crest. Of course, King Weldon Ayane would never leave a member of the royal family without a tie to their heritage. No matter the circumstance he firmly believed that everyone had a right to know where they came from and who they were.

Simril let out a laugh. For a king that wanted everyone to know their family he was sure willing to give up his only daughter. What reason for it though? Sure there'd been a contract with a scientist on Battleship King, but he believed that the scientist had retired several months ago, whatever experiments he was doing were stopped immediately.

The baby in his arms let out a wail and stretched her chubby arms up to the sky, eyes squeezed shut. Simril looked around quickly, begging to see someone who knew what to do. He wasn't one that knew how to take care of children. Pressing a button on the desk he calls for a nurse.

She enters quickly, a cart full of items that could help with any kind of injury he may have. She comes to a stop upon realizing that there is no blood, only a man out of his element with a baby in his arms.

She sets her hands on her hips. "Sir, that child; where did you get it?"

Simril glanced out his window. "She was delivered moments ago, her family didn't want her. It seems that I've become her legal guardian now.

The nurse sighs. "Give her to me, you're hopeless."

As she takes the baby Simril sinks into his chair. "Freya, you're a lifesaver."

She smiles at the small child. "Yes, I know." her attention focuses on the baby and her voice becomes higher pitched. "Why don't we go find you some food, hmm? I'm sure you're hungry."

Simril nods. "Yes, I'm starved."

A glare from Freya makes him realize that she wasn't speaking to him. "Sir, you do know that I was talking to the baby."

He nods, embarrassment threatening to flood into his cheeks. He refused to let it show. "Yes, now go on and give her what she needs."

Freya nods. "Her name?"

"Sadal. Her name is Sadal." He says.

Freya gives him a pointed look. "Sir, is that name from one of your stars?"

The blush of embarrassment can't be kept down as she figures him out so quickly.

He clears his throat. "Fine, her last name is Sadalsuud, her given name is Naunet. Naunet Sadalsuud."

Freya doesn't look impressed. "You're hopeless, we thank the gods that you've never had children." She walks away. "Honestly, naming you after a goddess from an ancient religion and a star. You poor child."

Simril rolls his eyes as he watches Freya take the child away. His phone rings, tapping a few commands onto his desk a hologram appears, the face of Weldon Ayane appears in full bloom, five times it's actual size.

Weldon stares at Simril. "Mr. Simril, I expect you to treat my daughter kindly, she is of royal blood. If she happens to be returned to us I don't want to see a single mark on her. Understand?"

Simril gives a bow. "Of course my lord, now I've got many things to attend to here on King."

Weldon frowns. "Simril, she is a princess, I expect her to be raised as one."

The screen clicks off and Simril sits back in his seat, letting out a sigh. Honestly for a king that wanted everyone to know their heritage and where they came from, he seemed against using Simril's birth name, the name he'd come to adopt.

Simril stands and goes to his wall of windows. The stretch of stars and far distant planets mesmerizing and confusing to those who hadn't lived among them for some time.

He set his hand on the glass. "King Weldon, my name is Palace, and on this ship; I am the king."


	6. Chapter 3

Aries was bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet. This was a new terrain, they call could feel it. The basic training room was completely different from their typical private one. There were tracks around the perimeter that had more lanes than they were used to, more than a few of weapons. Oddly though, there were only plastic rounds, no live ammunition.

Still, that couldn't even satisfy the bouncing Aries.

Honestly, it was scary watching him bounce around. Then he suddenly stopped and sat on the floor, head in his hands. As Libra went to investigate the sudden change he stopped, laughter hit his ears and he turned to see Cancer in the middle of the group of girls, her hand extended towards Aries.

Libra frowned. "Cancer, don't shift his emotions."

The girl with the double buns shrugged, releasing her hold. "I was trying to make him calmer, but he's only got two moods. Brooding and Excited."

Aries flipped his finger up towards her and picked himself off the ground. Taurus crosses her arms and narrows her eyes as she stares at Aries. He lowers his hand and turns away from her.

"Taurus, we're not here to kill anyone, especially not our teammates." Aquarius reminds the other girl.

Pulling her gaze from Aries, Taurus grins. "Course not, I know that!"

Rolling her eyes Aqua checks her watch. "Where is that annoying idiot?" She mutters.

Libra sighs. "Give him three minutes, he'll have everyone in here by then."

She frowns and the realization dawns on her. "Oh no."

Gemini nods. "Oh yes."

Capricorn nods. "He tried getting me to run with him, I turned him down."

Aquarius nods. "Good on you for that." She loads a gun. "Alright, first one to shoot Leo when he get's back in can take over the team."

She's joking of course, but they are all eager to get a shot in at their sharpshooter. Libra taps his watch face and points to the door. Aquarius raises her gun, aiming for the door. It slides open and Leo comes bolting through, a group of soldiers following him. He's grinning until he realizes what's waiting for him. Stopping short he doubles back, dropping to the ground as a bullet zips past where he was previously standing. Pushing himself off the ground he pulls the gun from beneath his shirt out and aims at Aquarius. He sighs.

"Really Aqua?" He mutters.

Neither lowers their guns. "You were supposed to wake them up and bring them here, not have your idiotic weekly run."

She lowers her gun first, tucking it into the waistband at her hip. She turns, ignoring the gun he's still got raised. Leo rolls his eyes, tucking the gun into the sheath on his thigh.

Aries steps forward, grinning. "Welcome soldiers, allow us to introduce ourselves. My name is Aries, got that?"

A few murmur amongst themselves, staring at these newcomers.

Libra steps forward. "We," He gestures to the thirteen of them. "Are you new instructors. Naturally you will still have your drill instructors, but don't worry when you see us around."

"Actually," Cancer grins. "I would worry if you see us around; that typically means that there's hell coming."

Clapping her hands Cancer points over to Scorpio who types several codes into the tablet in his palm. The track around the perimeter starts glowing.

She sets a hand on her hip. "We will start with running. Everyone on the track in two minutes or we add an extra ten laps."

The soldiers don't waste time getting onto the track. They put themselves into five, roughly even, lines on the track. She steps up beside the track and raises a gun into the air.

"You've got fifty laps, once your down grab a drink and meet back up in this spot. I'd recommend finishing quickly, that gives you more time to rest." She fires the blank and the soldier jump into running.

They take off, quickly. She lowers the gun and tosses it back to Leo who catches it easily. She stands, hands on her hips and yawns.

Leo has set to fiddling with the gun. "You're a demon, Canny."

She grins. "I know."

Capricorn steps up beside her. "Let's just thank her for getting them into the training mood. Do any of you have a lesson plan for today?"

The five highest ranks wince. Cancer even looks ashamed. Gemini groans into his hand.

Suddenly the doors open. The soldiers run by, looking at the girl standing in the doorway. She dodges the runners and hurries over to the Zodiac.

"I got there previous training records from Palace!" She announces.

Leo grins. "And now we've got a lesson plan." He takes the files. "We'll split them up amongst the five of us. Based on their current skill level we'll place them based on their worst. Train them up from their worst to their best."

Aquarius nods. "I'll take hand to hand combat."

"Infiltration." Aries doesn't miss a beat.

Cancer lifts her hand into the air. "I'll handle space suit fights."

Libra lifts his hand. "I'll handle bracing them for interrogation."

"That leaves shooting, guess that me." Leo says.

The girl grins and takes the files back. "I'll sort them quickly, be done in a moment!"

She simply drops to the ground and quickly passes file after file into five separate files. Sagittarius and Capricorn watch the soldiers running around the track and smirk to themselves.

"Cancer cut them some slack, didn't she?" Cap mutters, watching them complete their ninth lap.

Sagittarius nods. "I remember when she would schedule us for fifty laps at 0300 every morning for a month, you never had a problem with that, but she would make you do double the laps if you didn't pace yourself with us."

Cap laughs. "That she would, I learned quickly how to control my speed." He settles into watching, figuring out quickly who were the fastest ones and who knew to pace themselves. "I think she was the best at getting us all to control our gifts."

"You boys want to let us into the conversation?" The girl they're speaking about hums.

Cap turns and sets his hand on the back of his head. "Nothing of importance, just commenting on how beautiful you look today, Cancer!" He laughs nervously.

She blinks and glances down at what she's wearing. "...Okay."

She turns and Sagittarius sets his hand on Capricorn's shoulder. "You know, for someone who really doesn't want her to know you like her, you're _really_ obvious."

Cap deflates, head hanging and arm loose at his sides. "I know."

Smirking Libra looks over as he catches word of their conversation. Soon enough the first of the soldiers flop to the ground as they finish their laps. Cancer grins and nods to the water that's been brought in for them. A few manage to get up and get themselves a drink while the others remain on the floor, trying to get their legs to respond again.

Once half of the soldiers finish, Cap checks his watch. He nods to Cancer how fires another blank into the air. "Alright soldiers. Time's up. If you've still got laps you can turn those into service hours. Each lap is ten minutes of service hours. Count them up and record them immediately." She smiles. "And I'll know if you're lying."

Those who are unfortunate enough to still have laps trudge over to a board and write their laps remaining down. Libra stands beside it, staring each of them down. Once the last one writes his laps down Leo stands.

"Well, with that wonderful morning run I think it's time to train, what do you guys think?" The soldiers don't respond. One in the back moans slightly.

Virgo hands him a packet of several files. "This is the firearms group."

He reads off the names and those who he called stand and move to the shooting range on the other side of the room. Aquarius goes next, collecting her people. A few of them snicker as she leads them away to their area. Cancer and Aries take their groups, Libra remaining where his group is.

Leo grins. "Alright; I'll make this simple. You shoot and hit the target. You miss the target and you get service hours."

One smirks at him. "You're just a Graffiti street kid, what makes you qualified to train us?"

Leo shrugs and lands a kick to the man's chest. He's sent backwards, wheezing and coughing. Suddenly three shots ring out. One lands beside his neck, another atop his head, the third knicks his ear.

Leo scratches behind his neck. "Sorry my bad, you moved and I couldn't redirect in time."

He doesn't speak again and Leo's eyes slide over to when Aries and his group are. If anyone was excited to be amongst the soldiers, it was him.

"This is going to be fun." Leo hummed and reloaded his gun, passing out guns with plastic bullets to the soldiers.

One sighs. "We made passing marks on weaponry ages ago, why are we going through this?"

"Because, until you can shoot a man five leagues away in the head twice, you haven't passed my test." Leo shrugs. "Now point and shoot the target."


	7. Sheratan the two signs

Sheratan

The ship was dark. Faint light green lines were lit along the base of the walls. The ship was still up and running. Shit. That means that they failed their mission. Wonder what was happening to them down? The young boy, age nine, laid on his thin mattress with his hands folded under his head. It would only be another few hours, minutes maybe, till the top dogs figured out who'd come up with the plan. They'd know it was him, it was always him. Somehow even when it wasn't, he was punished for the actions of others.

As if death himself had it out for the young boy, the thick door to his place slid open. A large and hairy man stood with his chest puffed out and a glare going down his large, and many times before, broken nose. Without words he glares and indicates with his head for the boy to get up. This was Hephaes, he rarely spoke but just his glare would get you moving.

The boy stands, walking to the door with his wrists extended already. The large cuffs are locked around his frail wrists. The locks were like a brick, they weighed him down. If he wasn't used to these chains he would have fallen face first to the cold ground. Hephaes grasped his shoulder, somehow knowing where his last injection was and digging his fingers to the sore spot. The boy was steered towards the stairs and up to the ship's front.

The door slides open and the first things that the boy notices are the three others against the wall. They're gagged and they've got their own brick chains on their ankles and wrists. No way was the captain going to let them go after their last attempt.

The captain himself turned away from the controls, not that he himself controlled the ship, and glared down his thin nose to the boy.

"So," The captain spoke. "You think that you can shut my ship down and survive?"

The boy shook his head.

The thin eyebrows above those annoying squinty eyes raise. "No? Speak boy!"

A slap hits the boy's cheek, sending his head to the side with force. Staggering to remain on his feet he nearly stumbles and fall to the ground.

The boy rubs his cheek on his bare shoulder. "I didn't know about this plan."

The captain laughs. "Don't think I don't know how you're the ringleader of this whole," He waved his hand in the air and rolled his eyes. "Escape plan. You've been trying to escape for years."

Suddenly the spot on his shoulder crackled and his body filled with pain. The boy screamed. His back arched and he somehow remained on his feet as arcs of electricity rocked through his body and had him tensed in pain. Once the bolts cease he falls to the ground, gasping and leaving snot on the ground as he sobbed silently from the pain. Hephaes lifts him up by the shoulder, showing some kind of sympathy as he grabbed the other shoulder this time.

The captain waved a small remote at the boy. "This Sheratan, allows me to keep you in line, but you already knew that." He tucked the remote into his pocket. "You've got two choices. Receive their punishments for being bad children or cast them into the ring against the older class."

The boy's eyes managed to widen.

Another slap hits his cheek. "Speak boy, you've got limited time to give me your answer!"

Sheratan looks up at the captain. "Give it to me, you bastard."

Grinning the captain snaps his fingers. "You've become annoying boy, speaking back and name calling. That's not how good children act."

Spitting to the ground Sheratan doesn't say anything again. The captain frowns, realizing that the boy isn't going to say anything again.

"Send those three bare into the ring, call the older class." He orders.

The three against the wall start shrieking and thrashing about as they're picked up by some of the guards on the ship. They're stripped bare and dragged out of the room. The only girl is sobbing as she dragged through, her foot getting caught in the door as it shuts behind them. The crack rings out and her scream is barely heard before the guard holding her simply yanks her from the door, it shutting behind them.

The captain glares down at Sheratan. "Now Sheratan, do you understand the way things work around here?"

Nodding the boy takes a breath. "Yes, sir."

"Good."

Stepping away the Captain walks into a darker room, a single light turning on in the middle. There's a desk, rivers are carved into the wood, blood stained from years of the ship's operations. A chair sits there. Already knowing how this is going to go, Sheratan takes a seat, straddling the seat, leaning his chest against the back of the chair. He slips his hands under the straps on the edge of the desk, spreading his fingers out. The backs of his hands are scarred over, years of whippings showing on the nine year old's hands.

The Thrasher walks in behind the Captain. A whip ready in his hands. If he just takes deep breaths, he can get through this and he can go back to living on the ship like he had been. He can go back to fighting the others just to win some food for the night. Maybe if he won against an older kid or two again he could win some healing salve for his hands after this.

Stinging pain spreads across his back suddenly. Gasping for air that he can't seem to get his chest flys into the back of the chair. Pain covers all of his senses. Another lash hits his back and he lets out a scream this time. More and more lashes hit his back, but he can't get away. The more he struggles the faster the lashes come. Sheratan screams in pain, how could people stand there without emotion and watch this happening to a young child?

Granted, if they ran a fight ship like this one, they wouldn't care as long as they made money.

Suddenly the lashes come to a halt. To his regret, Sheratan is whimpering from the pain. Why'd they stop? That wasn't enough for three people, even he knew that.

"Sir." Thrasher says.

The captain pushes off the wall and walks over. "What? Why'd you stop?"

"Take a look." Thrasher says.

They both look at the boys back. Amongst the puckered, split skin there's odd patches of a dark grey. He's covered in blood, to be expected from the previous acts.

The captain frowns. "What is that?"

Thrasher shrugs. "Looks like Drupruq Armor to me."

The captain rolls his eyes again. "Yes, but how would he have it under his skin? That's impossible."

The rooms goes silent and the captain rolls his eyes but waves on Thrasher. The lashings come back, Sheratan crying out and fighting against his own tears and the pain. At this rate, he wouldn't even be able to fight someone in the younger class. Shit, he had to get out of here.

The next few days and nights were only filled with pain. Somehow, unknown to even himself, he managed to keep fighting and earned enough winnings to get some healing salve. After begging one of the others in the room to put it on his back he managed to get a night of sleep. Course to earn the salve he had gone a few days without food, so tomorrow would prove interesting.

A rumble in the night woke him up. Laying still for minutes he decides that it must have been his starving stomach. As his eyes shut again the rumble comes back, longer and louder this time. The other boys in the room wake up and voice their confusion. Forcing himself to stand he goes onto his tiptoes and peeks out the thin window on the wall of the ship, just above his bed. They've docked. Surprisingly the whole ship docked.

More conversation lift into the air as the others realize that they've docked at a station. Peeking out the window again Sheratan notices a line of large, scary looking men behind a sign. This isn't a refueling stop. This is a hiring. Jumping from his bed he crawls underneath, pulling one of the plates off of the ground and dropping into the hot ventilation tube. Crawling on his knees and elbows he forces himself to ignore the sweat dripping down his body. He'd been working on this escape route for a while, he could have been gone a few nights ago if it wasn't for those three idiots calling him out as their ring leader. He would get them back, that is if they survived the fights against the older class. That was doubtful, but one could hope. Dropping into another vent he thanks any kind of eternal being that this one was cooler than the other. He reaches the bottom of the ship, under the first floor, and finds the tools that he'd stashed for the past few months. He sets to work on the loose panel that he'd found two months ago. Thankfully he'd managed to get it off quickly. He pulled the panel into the ship so it wouldn't drop onto the ground. Sticking his head out of the ship he took a quick sweep of the area around, shocked to see that there was barely a line anymore. Most had already stepped aboard, he could see their feet and shadows moving above him. Grabbing the edges he dropped through the hole, keeping his grip on the sides. The ground was farther down then he thought. Swallowing thickly he mutters to himself, asking why he was this stupid. Blaming it on the previous lashing he dropped. Landing sharp pain spreads up through his leg. Holding back his curses and shouts he lays under the ship. The cold ground feeling nice against his torn up back.

A siren sounds and everyone runs from the ship, clearing the area for takeoff. Rolling to his front Sheratan pushes himself up and limps to the safe zone, managing to hide behind some scrap parts that aren't being used any longer. The ship is suddenly gone, taking off and disappearing out of the artificial atmosphere.

He's free. The thought sinks in and a smile appears on the face of a boy who hasn't smiled in years.

He's free.


	8. Chapter 4

Facing a group of men and women that were all older then her and most taller, Aquarius could do nothing but put her shoulders back and hold her head high. This was just another test that they had to do for their training, and she'd be damned if she didn't place high on this test.

"During these next few months you will call me Instructor." She looks at all ten of the soldiers in training. "No other name is necessary."

One of the younger men, he must be nineteen or twenty by looks, lifts a hand into the air lazily. A cocky smile plays on his lips. "That right?" He looks her up and down. "And what qualifies you to teach us some very important military training and lessons?"

Aquarius folds her hands behind her back and levels her eyes up to the man. "There is no reason to prove myself to you or to anyone, and as long as you are in my class you will listen to my instructions."

A few other men smirk and share looks before they all look at their 'instructor'. One takes a step forward, smirking. "So, Miss. Instructor, what are we doing first?"

Aquarius takes a step forward too, well aware of the challenge he's proposing. "Hand to hand combat. Everyone wrap your hands."

A staring contest begins between the man and Aqua. It breaks only when another soldier in training throws a pair of gloves at his fellow SIT. Stepping back Aquarius dares to glance around at the other Zodiac members and their groups. There's Leo, his group racing against the clock as they disassemble and reassemble their large guns. There's three small holes on the wall where Leo outlined the head of one of his trainees. Aries is going through strength training with his group, and by the looks of it, none of them will feel their arms tomorrow. Capricorn has needles and vials of fluid that make anyone, anyone untrained that is, to lose their sense of right and wrong. Those injected will easily spill their secrets to whoever is asking the questions. Cancer has her trainees in the 0-grav chamber, true to her nature, she's already got them fighting in suits.

Looking back at her ground she takes a deep breath. Well, seems that they respond best to someone they know is stronger than them. Tugging her own gloves on she faces her group and takes a deep breath in through her nose.

"Okay, let's do this." She whispers.

Her group face her with their gloves on and relax posture. That irked Aquarius, not the fact that they had dared to challenge her on her ability to train them, the fact that they dared to seem relax while they were in military training.

She tightens her gloves. "Make a single line in front of me."

The first boy from before. "What are we going to do?"

Aquarius lifts her hands, ready to fight. "Step forward the first in line."

It's an older man then the others, at most 24. He grins, estimating that his size and muscle will be enough to take her down easily. He throws a fast jab. And suddenly he's still moving in the direction, no contact on the small girl he aimed at. He whips his head around, confused as to why he missed such an easy target. His eyes land on the small girl, her leg lifted off the ground in a chamber parallel to the ground. As they lock eyes she suddenly, and quickly, twists her hips, tossing her foot into the air higher than anyone expected. The kick drops to the ground, making contact with the hinge of his jaw. He drops to the ground. She retracts her foot and sets it down.

She blinks down at the fallen body and looks at the next in line. "Next."

The next one is a woman. Thankfully she looks absolutely terrified. When she throws the few punches she dares to Aquarius dodges, and targets her neck punch for the hinge of the jaw once more. The woman drops to the ground, holding her face and cursing loudly. She's unsteady, but she manages to stand and exit the makeshift ring. As the line continues to move through and fight their instructor, the comments about her not be competent enough to teach them thin and quickly completely disappear.

By the end of the fights, Aquarius stands and slowly pulls off her gloves. Her trainees groan and hold the places of the most pain on their bodies. She checks her watch and smiles.

Stretching out her shoulders she nods to the door. "You're free to go, if you've got service hours I would do them before you let your muscles tense up."

She turns away and goes to the table with knives and guns laid out for future use. She makes a space and takes a seat. Undoing her hair she ties it back up just as quickly. Her trainees pick themselves off the floor and help each other out of the room. She grins as she watches them go, twirling a strand of blue hair around her finger.

She grins. "This is fun."


	9. Altarf Crab Body

Altarf; Crab Body

Smells of oils and chemicals mixed in the air. The room was pitch black, perfect for developing photos like they did hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. A young girl, roughly age six, sat on a stool just outside of the black room. The museum was something, that's for sure. Her father, a famous painter named Mese Altarf owned and ran the museum. Some of his own paintings were actually housed in there.

Rumor has it, that just stepping into the building will lift your spirits and making you incredibly happy. No one was sure how that happened, but everyone could tell the shift in their emotions. Some said it was based off of the gorgeous art that decorate the first few rooms. Others claimed it was the location. While that was viewers choice, everyone entered and left happy.

The young girl sat, swinging her legs in time to a tune playing in her head. She'd heard it from some girl's phone as she walked by. The music was faint but her ears picked it up easily. Humming to herself as people walked in she could easily pick up on the moods of everyone.

It was an entertaining game she liked to play with herself and those who walked by casually. Their emotion spoke to her, they seemed to reach out, screaming to be heard. Who was she to turn them away? There was a woman, she was nervous. The man beside her was nervous as well, but he was full of pride. Were they on a date, but it was a first date.

The girl sighed, resting her elbow on her knee and dropping her chin into her palm. Yawning she wondered why people decided to come to an art museum, of all places, at nine in the morning. Sometimes, she just didn't understand people.

The door behind her opens. "Meley, come, come!"

Jumping from the stoll, ending her game, she steps into the dark room. Her father waves her closer, urging her to look at the new prints he's done.

"What are they?" She asks, his excitement and pride nearly making her sick.

He grins, setting a hand on her shoulder. "They tell a story, do you understand it?" He asks, pointing to the prints in their respective order.

She shakes her head. "No."

His disappointment is slight, a different feeling for once but it's drowned quickly. He lifts her, surely by now the six year old was getting too heavy for the thin man to lift. Her frame was just as thin as his, her weight not matching up to the standard for normal six year olds.

"This," He pointed to the first. "Is your mother and I meeting."

She nods. "You can't see her face, her hair covers it." Meley points out.

Mese nods. "Yes, I know." He points to the second one. "This is us finding out that she was pregnant with you."

She blinks. "Papa, what's wrong with this one?"

"That's when I found out how she got the money for this place." Mese's voice drops.

The sour feeling of regret and shame swarms her. She's choking on it, but in the midst of it all there's a blossom of love.

Mese sets the girl down. "Your mother and I wanted a child just as badly as we wanted to open an art store. She found she was pregnant and began several experiments with galaxy renowned scientists."

"What did they do?" Meley asks, taking the fresh print that her father hands to her.

He smiles sadly. "They were working to see if they could save some nearly extinct alien races. Taking newly forming DNA from a little baby and implanting it into the aliens. Sadly, it didn't work as they hoped and most of the labs stopped the experiments."

She blinks. "That's weird."

He nods. "You know, they were going to use the DNA from our area to go to a group of Aliens called Aeorlor; they could taste emotion."

Her eyes widen and she hands the print back. Shuffling her feet she looks around the room, realizing for the first time just how dark everything was. It was suffocating. Her father's love and the deeply hidden regret swarmed through her and her own fear of the now present darkness engulfed her. Turning, she ran from the room and nearly stumbled into several people on a tour of the museum. Regaining her seat on the stool she sniffled and swept her eyes across the room.

Suddenly, her game wasn't so fun anymore.


	10. Chapter 5

The commons, set in the middle of the barracks and armory, are filled with trainees and their drill instructors. Currently everyone was lounging about around the commons doing nothing. A few were going over there defenses and attacks while others were cleaning their weapons.

One soldier yawns and looks around. "Where are the Dogs?" She asks, using the slang term for the group of soldiers that happened to fall at the bottom of every skill listing.

Another, who's cleaning his gun, shrugs. "I heard that they've been getting special training to amp their scores."

"I heard that they're training with the Zodiac."

The small group breaks into laughter at the trainee who's walking behind them. His statement was just insane, everyone knew that the fabled Zodiac Team was either kept at a secret base at all times or they were just a myth told to get soldiers into the army. Their laughter continues until quite a sizable group has formed around them to find out just what is so funny.

The poor trainee who happened to mention a rumor remains standing with his arms crossed tightly to his chest. "I'm just telling you what I heard."

A girl sits up, wiping under her eye, still laughing. "They're myths you know, those Zodiac."

"Do you believe that? What if they're on one of those secret bases?" Another asks.

The girl turns to look at him. "Scotty, if there was a group of 'super soldiers' do you truly think that they could go hidden for this long?" She rolls her eyes.

"Scotty has a point, who knows how many secret bases the GCA has around, there could be dozens…" Tracie, a group captain, grins. "Maybe one for each Zodiac!"

"You've all got wax for brains." The girl mutters, yawning before laying back down."

The group of trainees frown towards her. "Weiss, why do you have to be a downer all the time?"

The girl, Weiss, sits up quickly. "I'm practical Tracie, I just don't see how science could fit Alien DNA with that of a soldier."

The commons goes quiet at her statement. It was true. If there was any way possible for scientists to connect DNA of several alien species to that of a fully trained soldier; the changes would be drastic and incredibly noticeable. Things didn't, and couldn't, work that way. Slowly the group starts to branch off until it's the original group lying on the ground and bench.

Weiss glances around. "My bet," She hums. "The Dogs got dropped."

The two others with her look up at her statement. "Dropped? Like floated or sent back?"

She shakes her head. "Neither, Dropped as in they moved down a rank or so. They'll still be on this ship, but I bet they've got a lot of service hours for their poor scores."

Weiss crosses her arms behind her head and lays back on the bench. The two on the ground share glances before shrugging and relaxing as well. The peace of relaxing returns to the commons until a large, rumbling blast sounds throughout the area.

"What the hell?"

"What's going on?"

The speakers going around the ship crackle to life. "This is a message to everyone aboard King, do not be afraid of the blasts going off. Some soldiers are going through an intense training session."

The speakers crackle off and the trainees in the commons look around at each other until a body comes flying towards the middle of the floor.

"Shit!" The body screams.

Once they land, they're quick to jump to their feet and spin in a fast circle, surveying the area. Once they've done that they let out a breath before pressing the mic on their left shoulder.

"Commons area clear, Ram is in pursuit, I need backup." The person says urgently.

Tracie stands. "Saio?" He calls. "What are you doing here?"

The person, Saio, glances back and get's blown backwards, landing nearly right beside Tracie. A laugh fills the commons and a boy, in full mask with horns, stands on the opposite end of the commons; gun in hand.

He grins, only his mouth visible through the mask. "C'mon dude, you know not to take your eyes off the prize."

Saio scrambles to his feet. "I'm dead." He turns and takes off running.

The man in the mask laughs and goes to his own mic. "Saio is on the move, headed towards your section Firebender."

The man in the mask nods to those in the commons and casually walks back to where he must have been hiding this whole time. No one moves. Their eyes are trained on where he disappeared and glancing between him and where Saio just disappeared. A figure shimmers into view.

"Freya, what's going on?" Tracie demands.

The AI looks around and smiles. "You needn't worry, just as Director Palace said. It's only a bit of training."

Weiss stands. "Saio just got blasted from the sky, he's a Dog, why is he in training?"

Freya stares at her. "Those who did not make passing marks on two or more subjects are being trained by professionals to improve their scores."

"Who are these professionals?" Tracie crosses his arms.

Freya flickers for a moment and smiles. "That is information that I cannot give out."

Tracie glares. "Who was the one in the mask?"

Freya clasps her hands in front of herself. "I believe his code name this round is Ram. He is a soldier aboard King assisting in the training."

"He looked young, younger than some of us." Tracie mutters.

Freya nods. "He is young, but very talented." She nods to the group. "I believe that the next runner is about to come through."

She flickers out of view just as the second person comes sprinting through the doors. They're screaming curses and unintellectual words as they run, some kind of green goo stuck to their right side, making them run awkwardly. As she limps into the commons she pulls a gun and turns back to where she came. Holding her gun she's trembling but her eyes are steady and cold.

Weiss stands now. "Tinie?"

The girl glances to the side but is quick to look back at the entrance. "Yes?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Weiss asks.

The girl, Tinie, shrugs. "Training, and setting a record."

She fires the gun and waits a few moments before moving backwards. She taps the mic on her shoulder and tilts her head to talk.

"I need eyes, what lies ahead of me, just hit the commons after Ram." She announces.

Crackle and a faint voice reply. "You've got Firebender next, watch yourself."

She curses. "Thanks, and update for others; avoid the commons, we've gotten to much attention."

Then she's fully covered in green goo. Her muffled cries of complaint can be heard through the goo. The masked man reappears, he's grinning and walks casually into the commons. He brushes some goo away to reveal Tinie underneath. She's glaring up at him.

"C'mon Tinie, this is the easy round." He chuckles.

She keeps up her glare. "I'm flipping you off underneath this goo."

He laughs and lifts her off the ground, setting her goo form over his shoulder. "That's disrespectful to a senior officer, trainee."

She huffs and doesn't say anything else. Another trainee comes flying through the commons and completely dodges Ram and Tinie. He leaps over the exit and continues on.

Ram glares and fires after him, barely missing. "Firebender, you've got a sneaky bastard on your ass. Shoot him down, don't let him move onto Hormones."

A crackle comes over his mic. "My name is not hormones you idiot! It's Shifter!"

"Relax Shift, just making jokes." Ram rolls his eyes.

"If we've got to use the idiotic code names, you can at least use the proper ones."

The crackle disappears. Ram chuckles to himself and disappears out the entrance with Tinie, covered in goo, still over his shoulder.

The soldiers and trainees still in the commons share looks before everyone clears the area. Living on King you come to know that when things start happening and code names are involved, you get out of there fast. In moments the commons are bare, barely anyone even dares to peek out of the windows. It's become a vacant space.

Ram sets Tinie down back at his little hideout. "Just keep quiet till this finishes up, there's what, two more of you guys?"

Tinie nods, as best she can in the stiff goo. "For today's round, yes."

He nods and reloads his gun. "Perfect." Leaning to his mic he grins. "Alright Lion, commons is cleared out do what you gotta do."

The crackle returns. "Thanks Ram, Lion moving into center position."

A female voice joins. "I swear, if you're about to do what I think you're about to do, I will kill you."

"Chill Siren, just stay in your position." The voice of Lion responds.

Siren goes to snap back but Ram groans and shuts them both up. "Look, just kiss and get it over with, got it?"

"I'll string you from the insides out if you mention that again." Siren responds coolly.

Lion's voice is like steel. "Ram, don't piss anyone off this early."

Turning his mic off Ram looks back at Tinie. "I swear, they bicker back and forth then suddenly their best friends. What's the deal."

She rolls her eyes. "Why are you asking me?"

He goes to say something but stops and frowns. "Nevermind."

Tinie grins. "But I can tell you that 70% of the girls in the groups have crushes on Lion!"

Ram grins, his mask still covering his face. "That's interesting. I wonder how Siren will take to that…"

Tinie frowns, confused this time. "But Siren just dismissed the topic of her kissing Lion, that should mean that she doesn't like him. Correct?"

He shakes his head. "No, she likes him, has to! Lion likes Siren as well, trust me on this. I've known them since I was nine. Lion and Siren are going to end up together, I promise you that."

"10 silver on it?" Tinie asks after a second.

Ram chuckles. "You're on."


	11. Zavijava celestial equator

Life was easy. At least it was to that of someone who had completed the traditional twelve years of schooling at such a young age. Smaller than all of her peers the young girl of age five walked onto the stage and accepted the finishing certificate easily. Cameras flashed and she took the diploma in her little hands and smiled to the camera, one of her bottom teeth having just fallen out. Everyone was in awe at this little pudgy five year old who had just graduated high school with a 4.0.

Exiting the stage she runs over to her Parents before stopping as she sees a man that she doesn't recognize talking with them. At the man's knees are three children, they're all her age or older. There's a girl that stands beside Palace with funny looking blue hair, but her eyes are what catch Aris's attention. The girl's eyes match her hair, a beautiful blue that would draw anyone to her. Aris was captivated, until the girl focused on her and the blue eyes turned to ice. Stumbling to the side the five year old finds her mother's leg and grips her skirt. Very unlike the high school graduate she was.

The strange man smiled and extended his hand to Virgo. "Hello little one, my name is Palace."

She blinked. "Aris Spica, hello." She took in his uniform and the name. "Are you Director Palace, from the GCA?" She asked.

The man nodded. "That I am, and these three are my children, say hello you three."

A boy she hadn't spotted before was suddenly in her face. "Hello! I'm Leo and I'm nine!"

Aris blinked. "Hello."

The girl with the blue eyes extended her hand to shake. "I'm Aquarius, pleasure to meet you."

Nodding Aris shook hands with the girl whose eyes were like the ocean. A second boy, the third of the group, was beside Aquarius and nodded to Aris.

"I'm Aries." Was all he said.

Blinking she gave a small wave before leaning heavily on her mother's leg. Palace continued to talk to her mother and father about how life on King was and how his own children were educated there. While he talked Aris let her eyes wander over the three children beside him. Leo was someone that she'd never seen before, he was constantly moving and couldn't sit still it seemed. Aquarius was trying to make him stop but it seems that her efforts were failures. Aries was someone that she could get along with, he didn't say much and he seemed nice. That was when she was brought back into the conversation.

"Aris?" Palace crouched down to her height. "What college are you going to?"

She blinked. "GCU, I go in fall."

He nodded. "Wonderful, well I've been talking with your parents and we've decided that you could come aboard King with me and get a feel for how things are work in the control station."

Her eyes widen. "Really?"

He nods with a smile. "Really, we'd even drop you off at GCU on Orion in the change of seasons so you could go through college."

Bouncing on the balls of her feet Aris grinned. "Oh yes, yes, yes!"

Her mother's hand at the top of her head brings her to a halt. "Palace, the _assurance_ that our daughter will be well looked after?"

Pulling his eyes away from Aris, Palace nods. "It will be given shortly." He looks down at Aris. "Well, are you ready to see where you'll be staying the next few months!"

She nods and hugs her mother and father. "Thank you!" Running after Palace she manages to catch up. People in the reception of the graduation clear a path as they follow the tall, important man with their eyes and then notice the horde of children he's got surrounding him.

Aris watches are Leo goes to divert away from them in hope of grabbing some sweets. Palace notices but keeps looking straight ahead. "Leo," He warns.

The nine year old boy huffs and rejoins them. As they exit the large room for the graduation there's a space pod waiting outside. The doors open and Leo and Aries race to get in first. Aquarius remains beside Palace while Aris hangs back a little.

Palace smiles down at her. "Don't worry Aris, those two will settle down soon."

She nods and steps into the pod, followed by Aquarius. Palace buckles her in as the other three doe their own quickly. Palace presses a button on the dash. "This is Jester, ready for court."

A static fills the pod before a voice. "Court is ready and waiting."

The pod lifts off and shoots higher and higher into the sky before suddenly Aris' feet start to float up in front of her. Grinning, Leo undoes his buckles and floats through the zero gravity air.

Palace sighs. "Leo, please return to your seat."

The boy ignores the request and pushes off of a wall to somersault through the air.

Static returns. "We see you Jester, ready for landing."

"Ready!" Palace announces.

Leo scrambles back into his seat and manages to get the buckles on just as the pod is pulled into the larger ship. The gravity is returned and Aris's feet fall to the floor once more. Soon a green light appears and they all take off their buckles and leave their seats before exiting the pod. Following closely behind them, Aris can't keep her eyes still as they fly around the docking areas. Pods of all different sizes line the walls and some are returning while others leave.

Aris grins as she looks around, she knows that she'll like it here.

The months flew by while she was learning how to work the entire control station. This was nothing like her classes on the GCA had taught her, it was far better! When they approached Orion and when the time came for her to go to GCU, she hugged Palace tightly and begged that he let her come back during breaks. He had agreed easily.

Her college years went by quickly, friends were a minimum but she was always waiting to return to King and see the others aboard. It was her third year, and last year alone there were two more children who'd come to King. One was a boy that Palace had rescued from Jurda Tant and the other was nine year old boy who seemed convinced that his mind was broken. They were interesting people and she couldn't wait to meet them and learn more about them both.

When Jester landed in the commons of the Galactic Colonies University, Aris rushed to the pod and quickly took a seat inside. Inside was Aquarius.

Grinning Aris hugs her tightly. Hugging her back, Aquarius gives her a loving squeezing before the two separate.

Aris grins. "Why did you come down?"

Aquarius shrugs and glances outside the pod, looking over everyone watching. "No reason, I just missed my sister."

Nodding as the pod takes off Aris pulls out a vial of water. Grinning she pours it out into the pod. Seeing what Aris is doing, Aquarius grins and holds out her hands. Since Aris' last visit she'd gotten a lot better at controling her gift.

"Make King!" Aris laughs.

Nodding, Aquarius shifts a hand and wills the water to form together and she molds it into the shape of Battleship King. Cheering at the success Aris claps even more.

"What next?" Aquarius asks.

Thinking hard she comes up with an idea. "Your home planet."

The water remains as King. "I don't know what that looks like." Aquarius shrugs.

Frowning, Aris thinks again. "Make Cloud City Palace!"

Nodding Aquarius forms the water into the stunning, tall pillars of Cloud City palace. The kingdom city on Kante Ayane was the largest and most populated city in the Galactic Colonies. Everyone knew about it and everyone wished to visit the land of paradise some day.

As the gravity returns Aquarius pulls her hands back and sends the water into the vial. Undoing her seatbelt she steps out of the pod and leads the way to Aris' room. Palace would come find her once he was done with his work for the day, rather when he found time to escape his work.

"Where are you going?" Aris asked, watching Aquarius leave the room.

Aquarius indicates the direction with her thumb. "Training room, the others are up there already."

"Can I come?" Aris asks, shuffling her feet.

Aquarius thinks it over but nods and leads the way once more. The two exit the lounge room and head down the halls. All of the training rooms were located around the barracks. Aquarius types a code into the faintly glowing keypad at the door of the training room. The doors slide open and inside there are soldiers training and cadets practicing. Tucked in the back are a group of kids. Aris spots several instantly, Leo and Aries are there and send waves.

"C'mon, they've been eager to see you again." Aquarius grins.

The two girls head to the far back corner and Aris hugs her friends who have become like family in these past years.

"Hey, the shooting range is open!" Leo grins and takes off.

Aries follows with some others and that leaves the two alone once more. Laughing Aris watches them run and Aquarius follows her look as the boys practice their knife throwing. She would never regret her decision to come along to King. Not in her life time.


	12. Chapter 6

Lights on King were completely shut off, any sensible person would be asleep at the moment. The time on a set clock would be somewhere around three am. The Graffiti towns were quiet, just a few kids kicking cans against the backs of houses as they made their way back home after a night of partying. The barracks were bare besides the trainees posted for watch, though albeit; even they were falling asleep. The only room lit up and filled with noise was a private training room. A girl was punching and kicking a bag near the back of the room. Her hair was stuck to the back of her neck and forehead with sweat.

Aquarius pants as she lands hard kick after hard kick to the back. The tops of her feet were red and nearly raw from the harsh, unforgiving bag. That didn't stop her. There was something that each of the Zodiac members had realized about their close friend; she didn't stop. When Aquarius got into training she would continue to train until she was forced to stop by orders from Palace or she passed out. As much as the others hated to admit it, the latter happened more often.

This time was different for some reason. The air around her was thick with inner pain. Something had happened. The first to wake after Aquarius left was Libra; nothing really got past his mind, even when he was asleep. He could taste the pain in Aquarius which caused him to wake up and exit his room in a near panic. Upon seeing the logs of Aquarius leaving the Zodiac bunks he woke Leo and Cancer.

The leader of the Zodiac was grumpy when being woken up earlier than normal. Cancer was partially asleep but upon hearing Libra's recount of what his mind reading picked up she was immediately awake and set on finding her friend somewhere on King.

Libra tapped a portion on the holographic map. "She may have been going to one of the bars, several are all nighters."

Cancer shook her head. "She doesn't drink unless it's celebration."

Leo yawned. "She's in the training room."

"There are no logs of her entering the training room, she couldn't be." Libra retorts.

Leaning forward, some of his head falling into his face, Leo types something and several security cameras appear on the holo. He sits back, a satisfied smirk as Libra narrows his eyes.

The cameras show Aquarius training with the heavy bags, throwing punches and kicks. They all lean forward and watch her train, eyes wide. It was no secret, Aquarius trained the hardest out of all of them. Even when they were kids and when they came aboard King, she was always the toughest. Aries nearly passed her once but even he had to stop and take a break.

"She's not human." Aries commented after that.

Scorpio shook his head. "No she's not, technically none of us are."

Hours of research later turned up the facts that the Alien DNA Aquarius had in her blood was not a species known for their strength or perseverance. She was doing this by her own sheer will and by her own choice.

While the group of three continued to watch their friend train Cancer frowned. "Look at her feet."

The two boys lean forward to get a closer look and Libra's eyes widen. "She's pushing herself to hard."

Cancer nods. "She won't be able to teach tomorrow. Not with her feet like that." The girl sits back, her curly hair bouncing around her thin frame.

Leo sighs. "You know how she gets, if we try to stop her now she'll just fight us and that will end with some of us out of teaching tomorrow as well." He points out, to which the other two nod in agreement.

He stands though, wiping his palms on his bottoms. Libra and Cancer follow him with their eyes as he walks to the small kitchenette area of their private lounge room. He pulled out a cup and put water on the kettle to boil. Going to the door he exits without a word to the others, leaving one confused and the other praying.

The halls on the way to the training room are dark, only faint light glowing along the tops of the walls to give people a sense of sight and direction. Leo could have walked this path with his eyes closed if he had to. Reaching the training room he sees how she got into the room without logging her code. Freya's touch was still on the door.

He rolls his eyes and types in his code and enters. And there she is. In all her blue haired, short, sweaty glory. As the doors slide open she lands a last kick before spinning to see who was entering. Upon seeing who it was she relaxed and turned back to the bag in front of her.

Leo watched her as he walked around the room, over to the guns on the table. "So, what are you doing up this late?"

"It's technically early morning, but I could ask you the same thing." She muttered, punching the bag and throwing different hand technique at the poor bag that served as her partner.

He nods, running his fingers on the weapons on the table. "Libra woke up in a panic and decided that it was best to get me up at this horrid hour."

Aquarius laughs, but there's little emotion in it. She's going through the basic conversation points.

Leo looks up at her. "He said that you were in pain."

"I'm not." Aquarius snaps back.

Nodding he lifts a small handgun and aims. "I know, so I said that I'd come talk to you to soothe his worries."

"Well, you talked." She hums.

Leo nods, not saying anything else as he pulls the trigger. The chamber is empty, but he continues to hold up the gun and hold the trigger down until Aquarius sucks in a breath. His eyes slide over to her and he sets the gun down on the table. Her feet are worse in person, there's blood on the top of her feet, and the entire area is completely red. As he set's the gun down Aquarius looks up and catches him looking at her feet.

"I'm fine!" She snaps, forceful.

He nods. "I know."

She crosses her arms and sizes him up. Neither says anything but Leo checks his watch, nodding he clarifies with the time that he's got several minutes until the water warms.

Leaning against the table he crosses his arms as well. "Freya, lock security footage from this point on, notify Palace of my request."

A holographic woman appears and smiles. "Certainly, Leo."

Once he's waited several moment he locks his eyes onto Aquarius. "What happened."

She raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Rolling his eyes, Leo sighs. "You know what I mean Aqua, what happened to make you come here. Alone and at some ungodly hour."

She shuffles her feet. "I've got a lot on my mind, that's it."

"I'm not a mind reader but even I can see that you're not telling the truth." He sighs. "You can trust me Aqua, you know that."

She nods. "Leo, it's not business that you need to get involved with."

A thought clicks into place. "It's about your family, isn't it?"

Her face goes red with anger and he knows that he's done two things. Number one: He's found the source of her anger. Number two: He just pissed of Aquarius. With the new knowledge of her anger he drops to the ground to avoid the training knives being thrown at his face. Rolling across the floor and taking cover behind a training dummy he managed to snag a gun and several goo capsules from the table. Loading the gun he evens his breathing and scopes out the area. A knife nearly catches him in the shoulder, but he fires and makes Aquarius move away from the blast and take cover herself.

He crouches down. "Aqua this is stupid, can't we just talk?" He calls.

Her voice is closer than he expected. "It's none of your business!"

"Fine," Leo sighs. "Let's just kill each other until one of us talks."

There is no response from the girl and Leo peeks around his dummy to see where she previously was. His mind is working to figure out different ways she could have moved and when he reaches his conclusion seconds later, he turns, his gun aimed behind him.

Crouched with knives in hand, less than an arm's length away is Aquarius. Her blue eyes are standing out against the semi lit room. Swallowing he moves his finger to the trigger of his gun, ready. Sure he didn't want to shoot her, but if she threw a knife at him she was going to taste the goo pellets. She was panting heavily and he dared to spare a glance down to her feet. They really were in bad state, blood ran between her toes as she crouched but she didn't waver.

"Talk." Leo breathes.

Her hand starts to shake slightly and he knows that the pain is winning. She falls back to her butt and sits there, knive still out.

"Yeah," She mutters. "It's about my family."

Leo nods. "What happened?"

Aquarius shakes her head, a delusional smile on her face. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened, which is what's wrong." She takes a deep breath. "I've got no idea where I come from and who my parents are."

Leo blinks. "Aqua…"

She shakes her head. "Shut up. You at least know what planet you're from and you know that you've got parents and siblings." Her gaze drops to the ground. "I don't."

Lowering his gun Leo rests his forearm on his knee. The unbreakable water demon from the Zodiac was sitting in front of him, broken. No, that wasn't the right word. She wasn't broken yet, just cracked. But if she was willing to reveal this type of emotion to him on the floor of their training room he was worried to see her broken.

That's when he vowed that she'd never break on his watch.

As if she heard his thought, Aquarius suddenly looked up. She frowned. "What are you thinking?"

Leo shakes his head. "Nothing important."

Her frown deepened. "I don't need someone to look after me Lee, what ever idiotic idea you've got in your head, drop it."

Holding his hands up in the air he shrugs. "I'm not thinking anything important."

"Liar."

He looked at her confused at the sudden stab at him. But he's even more confused at the smile on her face as Aquarius fiddles with her knives in her hands.

"You never stop thinking Lee, it's what makes you you." She says and stands.

Her face fails to conceal the pain that her body does well to hide. Leo stands as well, taking the knives from her and setting them back on the table, he drops the gun down as well, the goo pellets emptied onto the table. Aquarius opens the door and leans on the wall as she waits for him to catch up. The two exit together and as they walk Aquarius looks up at him.

"You're making tea, aren't you?" She hums.

Leo stutter steps and looks straight ahead.

Laughing despite the previous emotions coursing through her, Aquarius wipes her eyes. "Don't look so surprised that I caught on, you always make tea when one of us is down or angry." She lands a punch on his arm lightly. "You're a caring leader Leo, you know all of us well, almost too well."

She walks several paces ahead and reaches the door to the Zodiac lounge and bunks before him. She types in her code and scans her hand before the door opens and she walks through. Inside Cancer and Libra rushing to shut down the maps and security footage that still pulled up. Narrowing his eyes Libra sends a pointed look to Leo, who simply shrugs and goes over to the boiling water pot. He pulls down several mugs and pours the hot water inside before dropping the tea packets into the water. Two go into Aquarius's as she likes hers strong.

"Thanks." She hums as she grabs the mug.

Taking a sip of the hot drink she grabs some lemon and honey before stirring those into her drink. She sips again and nods in satisfaction before going to her room and shutting the door. Cancer gives a nod and exits the lounge to go into her own room.

Libra looks Leo over before his eyes widen. "Holy…"

A look from Leo has him slapping his hands over his mouth. Leo raises an eyebrow. "What?"

Shaking his head Libra stands and goes to his room, hands still over his mouth. Watching the oddity unfold Leo lifts the mug to his lips and sips the hot drink. He stands from the chair he sat in not a minute ago and clicks of the lights in the lounge and checking that everything is back to normal for the night before going to his room. The first room, belonging to Aquarius, is silent and the room log reveals that lights are off.

Letting out a breath he rests his forehead against the door. He managed to repair the crack this time, but he was worried for what might happen next. He didn't want to know what would force her to crack or break next time.


	13. Ascella the tail

Have you ever felt the fear creep into your body as you perform? That fear that fills your body and nearly leaves you petrified seconds before you've got to go on? Of course, every great performer gets over that because they've got a job to do and by all the saints they'll get that job done. Of course, when you're a young boy the only thing you work for is food and a place to stay. That alone is enough motivation.

"Oi Kaus, the main ring is ours for practice." A voice shouts from outside a tent.

The boy being called sits up, flicking paper confetti from his hair. He yawns and stands before exiting the tent. There stands his, sadly, friend. A thin boy of roughly age nine. Neither was to sure of their exact birthday but that didn't matter in the circus. Popping his knuckles he and the other boy make their way to the main tent.

"Didya hear Kaus," The other boy talks excitedly before running several paces ahead and waiting for Kaus to catch up. "Everyone says that some big name dude is coming to our show tonight!" He runs ahead and waits, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Who do you think it is?"

Kaus pauses at the tent entrance. "Dont know, don't care."

The other boy frowns. "Kaus, don't be mean. You do care!"

Groaning at the annoyance this other boy brings he drops the flap behind him, enjoying the moment of silence before the other boy pops up beside him, the flap barely moving.

"I'm so excited that I can't sit still." The boy grins.

Kaus glances at the other and sighs. "I can tell."

Walking into the middle ring they both pause and watch the other acts finish their routine. There's women soaring through the air on wires so thin the eye could hardly catch them.

"They're so cool, I want to do that when I get older." The boy sighs, watching the ladies soar.

Kaus shrugs. "You're not thirteen yet Deneb, you've got years to wait!" He teases.

Frowning the other boy crosses his arms. "So what, you have to wait until you can play with the knives too! Long then me! You have to be fifteen, ha!"

Kaus' glare shuts up Deneb for now, but these two bicker like no one else so the silence is sure to end in moments.

"Ah, there are my show stoppers, my wonderful little showstoppers!"

Both turn to see a man in a nice suit walking up to them. They stand and are quick to bow to the ring leader of the circus. He was a nice man, a bit stout and shorter than you'd expect up close but kind and gentle.

He laughs and sets a hand on each other their soldiers. "Boy have I got a good plan for you two, trust me, you'll love it!" He pushes them onto the ring and snaps while pointing at Deneb. "You will be the first out onto the ring, of course I expect your natural jokes and charms while you run around. But!"

Deneb leans on the balls of his feet. "What, but what?" He's eager to hear the rest.

"But, around the middle I want you to grab a paint brush and a bucket of some gas. You're going to paint a flame onto the ring. Once you've done that you'll run around the ring a few more times and distract the audience to the light switch and then you'll turn it off."

Deneb grins. "So cool, but why gas? That stuff stinks." He frowns and waves a hand in front of his nose.

The ring leader grins. "Because, once you turn out the lights, our firecracker here is going to light the ring on fire and do his fire tricks. Seriously kid, the people love that stuff."

Deneb still frowns. "But Kaus doesn't need gas for-"

Kaus punches his friend in the arm to shut him up. "Cool, when do we practice?"

"Right now." The ring leader grins and nods to the now empty and cleared off ring.

Deneb nods and runs onto the ring, he circles it a few times before slowing down gradually and then stopping in a comical way. Kaus watches with annoyance at the cartoonish way his friend, rather partner, acted during the show. Deneb ran around a few more times, going into the audience and making funny faces at people, once he did that he shot over to the bucket of gas and lifted it, running to the ring he dipped the paintbrush in and quickly made some form of a flame image on the ground. Setting the bucket down he made faces and ran around before going to the lights. A whistle and then he made a show of flicking the lights off.

The ring leader claps. "Very nice, now Kaus, you'll be in the back and when you walk out, have your matches ready."

Nodding at the man Kaus goes into his position and pulls out matches from his pockets. He walks out and strikes them easily and moves the fire onto his palms, He toss the fireballs into the air and sends a glance while he juggles the fire.

"Now drop the fire to the ground and watch the fire come to life!" The ring leader declares.

Shrugging he tosses the balls into the air and goes to catch them and then steps back and lets them fall. They hit the gas on the ground and spring up into towers of flames. Casting his hand out he makes the fires go lower then brings them up highers before sweeping his hand and extinguishing the flames.

The ring leader claps loudly. "Amazing, you're skills will leave even me in wonder. You've really been practicing!"

Kaus pulls out another match and tucks it behind his ear, like normal. He shrugs and Deneb comes up to him. "Can we go practice the flame outside?"

The ring leader nods. "Of course, of course!" He taps his watch face. "Let's have that down within the next hour or so boys, we start our show at precisely 5 pm, let's make our special guest astounded."

The two nod and escape the main tent and head to a patch of asphalt where no one is at the moment. Deneb practices drawing with the gas before he looks over a Kaus who's twirling a match around his fingers.

"Kaus," Deneb pauses. "Why does he think you need gasoline to make fire?"

The other boy shrugs. "Because, I didn't tell him that I can make fire whenever."

Deneb frowns. "You should, the circus would make more money if they had a boy who could make fire on their posters." He gasps. "You could be a headliner!"

Kaus shakes his head. "Deneb, do you ever think about what could happen later in our lives? I mean, do you want to be apart of the circus forever?"

The other boy is silent, lazily drawing circles with his paintbrush on the asphalt. He doesn't speak of several moments but when he does Kaus can't help but glance at the gas painting. It's of a circus tent, a comical one that the ring leader put on all the posters.

"I don't know, I never really wondered about that." Deneb shrugs. "I don't have anyone to go home to, nor do you."

Kaus lays back. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He lets out a breath. "And hey, don't paint with gas tonight, my fire wants to cling to it, it's harder to control."


	14. Chapter 7

The rooms are dark, no light reaching the eyes of the soldiers. The walls are nearly an arms length away and the door appears to be right in front of them. There's no countdown but the door suddenly opens. The soldiers move out of the cramped quarters quickly, stumbling forward into the dazzling white lights. It takes seconds for some to get used to the brightness while a few stumble about with the heel of their palms pressed to their eyes. Those lucky enough to fight of the blindness grab the bullet and gun on a desk near them. From there, they don't waste any time running into the dark blue walls of a maze laid out in front of them.

The sound of a bullet goes off, followed closely by someone cursing. Pressing against the wall with the gun tight to his chest a boy peeks around the edge of the wall. He can see one of his previous teammates, now his opponent crouched, aiming at something he cannot see. Letting out a breath the boy fires the gun. He hits his target, knocking them over as a lime green goo spreads across their body; restricting movement.

"Son of a-" The shot boy stops his cursing as he looks at who shot him. "Sagittarius!"

Saluting, the boy grins. "So, what's it like to be shot?"

Another shot rings out and Sagittarius drops to the ground, back encased in green goo. Another walks forward and grins. "Yes, what is it like to be shot? Do tell Sag."

Sag glares at the other and very professionally sticks his tongue out. "Get lost."

Leo shrugged, taking the two guns off the fallen and tucking them into his waves with his gun before jogging away, deeper into the maze. Sag lays there, glaring at the blue wall while Aries is attempting to sit up. So far, he's made little progress.

"Just give it up, this game will come down to Libra and Cap or Cap and Leo." Sagittarius mutters.

Aries glares. "If you hadn't shot me I could have taken Capricorn out." He snaps. "I had the perfect shot lined up!"

Managing a small shrug Sag rests his chin on the ground. Aries grunts and he worms his way to the wall and struggles with getting himself propped up against it. He manages it, only after several other shots ring out and the large overhead bulletin board flashes the names of those that have been shot.

Currently, Aries was the first to go down. Following seconds later by Sagittarius. In a surprising turn of events Cancer was taken out by both Scorpio and Capricorn. Taurus shot Scorpio and was then taken out by Aquarius who managed to avoid Pisces' bullets.

Those who were currently out:

Aries

Sagittarius

Cancer

Scorpio

Taurus

Those still in:

Leo

Libra

Aquarius

Virgo

Gemini

Capricorn

Pisces

Ophiuchus

Deep in the middle of the maze was a show down. Leo, with the two guns he'd taken from Aries and Sag was standing, aimed at Gemini who had a single gun lifted towards him. Neither was moving, but Leo looked worse for wear as the two continued to stare each other down.

Leo's jaw tightened. "So not fair bro." He mutters.

Gemini shrugs, looking quite relaxed. "Rules allowed for gifts, I'm just using mine to my advantage."

Narrowing his eyes Leo fought for control of his own mind. Gemini was terrifying when he wished to be. Thankfully he wasn't like Libra, who could read your mind, but he could control it if he was close enough to you. Leo, like all the Zodiac, had gone through an intense round of training to combat the mind control for as long as possible, but even the strongest warrior would wear down after constant attack on his mind.

His hands began to twitch and shake, his right hand moving ever so slowly towards his chest, his finger fighting to pull the trigger. Leo could resist for a little longer, but the concentration going towards not shooting himself was keeping him from shooting Gemini as well.

Then there's green goo flying at Gemini from the side and Leo catches a kick straight in his chests. He coughs, going down and hitting the ground hard. As he goes to get up as fast as possible he notices a weight on his chest.

There's a boot covered foot on his chest. He glares at the boot and only has about two seconds to realize who's boot it is before green goo lands on his chest, knocking him out of the game. More shots go off and the girl is knocked off of him, hitting the wall and becoming attached thanks to the goo. The girl curses as her name is marked off the board.

Leo grins up at her. "So, who shot ya, Virgo?"

The girl frowns. "Ophiuchus."

Gemini laughs from down the hall of the maze and Virgo aims her gun towards him. She fires several shots and the laughter turns into pleads of forgiveness. She nods in satisfaction and glances up at the board.

"Well," She whistles. "Libra, Aqua, Cap, Pisces, and Ophiuchus are the last ones."

Leo lifts his head up. "I got 10 Silver Lira on Libra and Aqua winning this."

"10 Silver Lira on Pisces murdering everyone!" Gemini shouts.

Virgo rolls her eyes. "Idiots. Cap is going to win, he's dodges all of Aqua's attacks so far."

The three let out sighs.

Gemini grins. "Make it 20."

Leo laughs and another name is marked off the list. Virgo cheers as Libra is wiped off the list, making Leo's bet down to only Aqua winning. Suddenly rapid fire sounds throughout the maze.

"Hide, hide, hide, hide, hide, hide!" A running Ophiuchus says as he goes by.

Goo hits the maze walls around her until she slides behind another wall, barely missing the next shot that nearly got her. Pisces sighs as she looks at the spot where Ophiuchus disappeared.

Gemini cheers. "Come on Pie, I've got 20 Silver Lira on you winning this!"

She shoots him. "Gambling is frowned upon on this ship."

A groan from Gemini as he meets yet another shot from the green goo. At this point he has to be the most covered out of all thirteen of them. Pisces freezes suddenly and scans the area. Her voice drops into a whisper and the next words she utters aren't in any language Leo recognizes. But he does recognize the sight of a body flying and connecting to the wall of the maze.

Cap peeks around the corner, not risking anything.

Pisces frowns. "I hate you."

Capricorn shrugs and whistles as he gets a sight of Gemini. "Dang dude, what happened to you."

"He's annoy, that what happened." Virgo answers for him as she fires yet another shot at Gemini's already goo covered form.

Laughing Cap stands and gives a small salute before surveying the area. He walks off before he disappears. His gift of speed serves him well in this game. It's down to Aquarius, Ophiuchus, and Capricorn. Aquarius suddenly pops out from behind the same wall that Capricorn did. She holds a finger to her lips and slowly moves around the goo covered Gemini and follows where Ophiuchus and Cap have disappeared.

Another shot sounds and Aqua tenses before relaxing and moving forward again. Only two names remain on the list. Aquarius and Capricorn.

Leo stares up at the board hanging from the ceiling. Ophiuchus was just hit by Cap **,** leaving just the two left. There were ways Aquarius could win, should she use her gift she could easily deflect the shots. She also had more battle sense then Cap did, that would aid her later on. But Capricorn had speed. He could move fast and avoid her shots while also shooting at her from different places at once.

While Leo's mind worked he knew the outcome of this fight. Had Aquarius wanted to use her gifts this fight she would have had water already beside her when she was hunting him down. She had none, she was going into this fight with just her battle sense and gun.

Virgo looks over at Leo and blinks. "You know who's going to win, don't you?"

He nods. "Yes."

She sighs. "Figured that much. Care to tell us?"

He chuckles and stares back at the board with a grin. "You just became 40 Silver Lira richer."

Gemini groans while Virgo cheers while still plastered to the wall. Shot after shot rings out and Aquarius' name disappears from the list and joins the others. Capricorn has won.


	15. Antares Rival of Mars

The Lowland Cities weren't too bad if you knew how to live in them. Sure, keeping your money hidden from the thieves was a hard task, but even that wasn't too bad. There was plenty of food, the market's never priced anything too high and there was always some kind of job opening. Course, no one really wanted to scrape Space Monkeys off the side of the ship, but it was better than no job at all. Even the children helped out around the house, running errands for their parents while they worked and earned money.

Like the young boy with the striking facial features that marked the left side of his face, covering his left eye and his upper left cheek in darker skin than there already was. Yet even more striking on this boy was his eyes, they were the first thing one happened to look at, not the mark on his skin. Those large, intelligent, pink eyes. Not a soft, subtle pink either; but a hot pink that was surrounded by an intense dark brown, nearly black, ring around the iris. The eyes of the boy were surely not natural, and many followed his parent's claim that he had been born blind and the doctor's attempt to restore his eyesight had resulted in an unnatural dye being applied to the eyes. Course the young boy of roughly nine had nothing stopping him and his harsh eyes in this quickly advancing world of space.

Of course that claim was little more than a whisper to the wind.

"Vance, is the Twelfth; are you ready for your appointment?" A woman of delicate features opens the door to the boy's room.

He's dressed and pulling on his shoes before nodding. "Yes!"

The two step out of their house, and join hands before walking down the populated streets of the Lowland Cities.

"You don't have to hold my hand, ma; I'm a big boy now!" The boy proclaims.

Smiling, the woman nods. "I know that, that's why you're keeping me safe by holding my hand, right?"

Unable to argue with her logic seeing as that would make him take back his claim of being a big boy, since big boys took care of their mothers. He kept his mouth shut and continued on the walk out of the Lowland Cities and towards the Grand Central. From there is was a five minutes walk down the left hall and then two rights followed by a left. That placed you at the acute doctor's care clinic. It was where they went every month on the twelfth day. They reach the office easily, right on time the boy noted as he looked at the clock on the wall and double checked with the one on his wrist. Should everything follow through with the normal times they should meet with the doctor in two minutes, a nurse will call his name and escort him to the room in thirteen seconds.

"Vance Antares for an eye appointment." His mother tells the woman at the front desk.

The woman at the desk smiles. "Yes, a nurse will be right with you."

Nine seconds. Vance counts down in his head. Eight. His eyes follow the older woman standing up from a computer in the nurse's station. Seven. She grabs a tablet and types in her code as she walks. Six. His eyes follow the movement of her hand and get the code without him trying to hard. Five. 6y9K1n6. Four. The nurse has logged into her tablet and opens the join that leads to a hallway. Three. She pulls up the medical card. Two. A quick glance at the name determines who she needs to call. One. Her eyes land on him and she smiles.

"Vance, are you ready?" She asks.

Nodding he stands and goes over to the nurse. "Yes."

Leading him and his mother down the hallway the boy occupies his mind with counting the number of doors on each side, then the amount of tiles on the ceiling. Once that grows boring and they've barely made it through the threshold of the door he glances inside an open room and sees a jar full of cotton balls. Grinning at a new challenge he quickly makes up an assumption of how many there must be in that jar. His answer come to 64 he multiplies that by the number of rooms.

"Seven hundred and sixty eight…" He mutters.

The nurse looks down. "What was that?"

Glancing up at the nurse he shrugs. "How many cotton balls there are in all the rooms together. Roughly seven hundred and sixty eight."

The nurse's eyebrow twitches. "And how do you figure that?"

He shrugs again. "I figure that only sixty four cotton balls can fit into a jar so just multiply that by the rooms and you get seven hundred and sixty eight." He scratches his nose. "Simple, right."

The nurse has stopped walking and is staring at the boy. "...right."

"Vance, we talked about this." His mother whispers, dropping her head.

The nurse puts a smile back on. "Right well, this room. The doctor will be here shortly!"

They step inside and she shuts the door, a bit to forcefully, behind them. A glance at the clock and another to his watch have Vance calculating the time of the doctor's arrival.

"Eleven minutes and twenty two seconds." He announces to his mother.

She smiles. "Very good Vance, but remember honey; not everyone understands how fast your mind works." She fixes the hair on his head. "So we have to think of other people and keep somethings to ourselves, remember?"

He nods. "I remember, sorry."

Taking a seat on the exam table set up in the room he swings his legs, happily counting down the seconds in his mind till when the doctor was set to arrive.

"Five minutes!" He cheers.

Smiling, his mother glances up from her tablet where she's playing a game against a robot in the system. She was very good at this game, having played it when she was a little girl and in turn; teaching it to her son and two younger daughters. It was always a fun family game that they played, at least when his father was home.

He was a busy man, having to work in the military for the Galactic Colonies. The GCA accepted anyone that was willing and able to go for training. That being said, of those that went to training only half continued to be ranked. The other half dropped out before the first week. It was a rigourus training program and very few could handle, but that proved to make the GCA the strongest Army in the known galaxy.

"Three minutes." Vance announces. "Say ma, what tests do you think I'll do today?"

She looks up from her tablet, turning it over to give her full attention to him. "Probably the basic ones and then the drops and colors test."

Vance frowns. "I don't like the drops."

Laughing, his mother nods. "Nor do I, I always cringe at how cold they are when I get tested."

Sitting back and focusing his eyes on the clock the boy continues to count down the time till the doctor gets there. Opening his mouth to announce that the time is up, the door is knocked on.

His mother smiles, knowing full well what he was about to say. "Come in."

The man that steps in is dressed in a single light purple outfit, his feet wearing a pair of slippers in a darker color. The white lap coat is open, his badge hanging loosely onto the front pocket, a set of keys on a chain around his neck.

He lifts a hand in greeting. "Yo, how are you today Vance?"

The boy shrugs. "Same as always."

Nodding the doctor jots his words into the tablet. "Wonderful, wonderful. Are you ready for the tests?"

Vance jumps from the exam table and nods. "Yep!"

The doctor pockets the tablet and waves for Vance to follow him out of the room.

"Where are we going?" Vance questions, following quickly.

The doctor glances down before sticking a toothpick into his mouth. "Well, we're going to try some different tests today, that alright?"

Shrugging, Vance continues to follow the doctor. "I don't care, you're the doctor."

"Right, right." The doctor laughs. "In here, we've got some tests set up for you."

Inside the room are three tables set up. On one in the back is a hexagon shape with a pile of mix-a-match blocks of different colors in the middle. On the one to the left, the closest one, there are a neatly stacked pile of cards and another stack of blank cards. On the table to the right there is a holographic board with a matching keyboard set beside it on each side.

"Today, we will be testing your mind rather then your eyes, okay?" The doctor says, waving Vance into the room.

Vance takes several steps inside the room. "Okay."

"Go to any table you want, you'll have time to do them all." He announces to the boy.

To Vance, all of these tables held new information that he couldn't wait to figure out. Deciding to pace himself he went to the closest table and sat down. A holographic man appeared and set his hands on the table.

"Welcome to your first test, infront of you are one hundred cards will riddles ranging from easy to difficult. Once you grab a card from the riddles pile also take one from the blank pile and write down your answer." The holographic man explains. "The riddles will be graded after you've moved on. You have exactly ten minutes to answer as many riddles as you can."

The hologram disappears and is replaced by a countdown. The countdown begins and he grabs a card. What occurs twice in a lifetime and a week, once in a year, but never in a day? Grabbing the blank card he's quick to write down the answer. The letter E.

The doctor opens the door and invites the others inside to observe the boy as he works.

"Seven minutes down, exactly two minutes and fifty two seconds left." Vance murmurs as he answers another riddle card.

His timing it right, the timer goes off as he puts his penic down after writing his last answer.

The first doctor praises him. "Very good, very good! Now onto the second test!"

Going over to the second table with the screen he takes a seat. Another doctor takes the seat across from him. "Hello Vance, we are about to pull up a list of the top five hundred soldier in the GCA, spanning across the entire known galaxy. Our job is to put together the best team we can think of out of the five hundred."

"What information are we given?" Vance asks, looking around at the other doctors.

The first one types on his tablet. "Everything besides ages, location, and photographs. You have an hour to complete this task, and you will be judged against your opponent."

Looking at the doctor across from him Vance frowns. "What do you do?"

The opponent laughs. "I'm a medical doctor who primarily works in the field. I know most of these soldiers so it's just to challenge you even more."

Nodding Vance sets his hands on the keyboard. He always went straight for the holo screens and their boards at the library in school and the one on the ship. Most of the time they were taken, but sometimes he was lucky enough to get on one. They were his favorite. So much information at the touch of your fingertips, he loved it.

"Begin!" The first doctor announces and the large counter overhead starts it's countdown.

Pulling up the lists of the soldiers his eyes skim over every name quickly. To simple to take soldiers with force, that would leave the defense open. A name catches his eye. Aquarius. Clicking on the name he quickly reads about this person and, unknown to him, he looked a little confused. There were things that didn't make sense on her biography, water control? Did she carted water around or something? Maybe poison water to attack with in close range? Then there was her classification that many soldiers didn't even have; Assassin. She could do close and far range attacks, but that water control was still confusing his mind. Physical Alterations? She could alter herself to look like someone else slightly perhaps, good tactic when ambushing enemies and not wanting to be noticed immediately. Clicking her name he adds her to the group.

"For now, could change." He mutters, never taking his eyes off the names scrolling by.

The next name to catch his eyes is Aries, weird, he seemed to be an offensive soldier who used the armor of an alien race to protect himself. He was strong, and his stamina was record high. Clicking his name, Vance adds him to the list. Tapping his foot as his anticipation grows Vance continues to scroll through the lists before stopping once more.

"Cancer?" He murmurs, unknown to himself that he's even speaking.

Reading her bio he grows even more confused. Emotions shift? He frowns, so she has good range of her emotions? So what. Reading more as he's urging himself to he stops.

"Raises team moral and tough to beat, plays by the book with tricks." He adds her without thinking and moves onto the next name.

Leo, sharpshooter, good at tracking, level headed. Vance smirked, this guy was everything a leader was meant to be. Clicking the name he barely scrolls again before stopping at the next few rows of names. Libra. Very good in negotiations, records show that everyone interrogated by him have broken not thirty minutes in. Very impressive. Reading more Vance even grins as he continues. Good at reading body language and listening to voice changes. This guy was like a Sherlock above all Sherlocks. Clicking his name the box glows blue.

"What's that mean?" Vance mutters.

The first doctor smiles. "Just that the box is full, you can change it if you want but remember that you've got twenty minutes left."

The doctor across from him frowns as he sorts through several for his final two team members. Vance lets out a breath of air and nods, reading through all of the bios of the five he's chosen once more. A bit of rearranging and he sits back.

"Done, with eleven minutes and thirteen seconds to spare." Vance announces.

The first doctor claps. "Very nice, and Dr. Zemke, you're welcome to finish in the rest of the time, we well show the winning team at the end of the third test."

Dr, Zemke, Vance's opponent nods and keeps working. Everyone else follows the first doctor and Vance to the third and final table.

"This is probably the easiest test out of the three." The doctor explains. "Just make nine cubes in the five minutes."

"With these blocks?" Vance points to the pile.

Nodding, the doctor pulls out his tablet. "Precisely."

The countdown begins and Vance stares at the pile, not moving. His eyes are moving over each pieces, silently fitting the together in his mind.

"Perhaps we pushed the boy too far?" A female questions. "He is only nine years old."

The first shakes his head. "No, just wait; he's thinking."

And as if the first doctor's words pushed the boy, Vance moves. Grabbing piece after piece with precision he sets them onto the glowing squares on the table. Within the first three minutes, there are already six cubes built. Vance doesn't stop, building piece after piece into a cube he freezes, hand in midreach.

"There's not enough for nine." He announce.

The first doctor grins. "There is, i promise."

Vance turns. "No! Not enough!" He rubs the side of his head, biting the inside of his cheek.

Not enough. Not enough. Not enough. The phrase is repeated over and over inside his head until he glances at the clock. A minute and three seconds.

"Not enough time." He mumbles. "Not enough blocks."

Scratching at the right side of his neck he grits his teeth. Suddenly his eyes widen and he pushes four of the cubes together and grabs the other four. Setting the second set on top of the first he slams his hands onto the table.

"Twelve seconds remaining." He announces. "Finished."

The doctors are all in shock and quiet at they look at this boy. The first pulls out his tablet and types in a few things before turning back to the second table where Dr. Zemke has finished.

"Well, let's see who you made your teams out of." Suddenly pictures appear on the screens.

Dr. Zemke's team is burly men and muscular woman who all look tough and deadly. Vance chews the inside of his cheek as he realizes that this is a strong team. Looking over at his board, Vance's color pales. All of the pictures are of children. The first, Leo, being not much older then him and the girl called Cancer being younger, with her front tooth missing.

This is what it came down to. A team of strong soldier and a team of children. Hanging his head Vance rubs his nose. "I failed."

The doctors are all speaking together and the first holds out his tablet.

"Vance, this is the man in charge of Battleship King, Director Palace." The first announces.

Vance looks at the small holograph of a man. "Hello, sir."

"Hello Vance, I hear that you just created an elite team of soldiers for me?" Palace asks. "I would like you to read of their names, in the rank order you placed them in."

"Leo, Libra, Aquarius, Aries, and Cancer." He mutters before remember who he's talking to. "Sir."

Nodding the hologram of Palace gives a thumbs up. "Thank you for doing that work, I don't like to play favorites."


	16. Chapter 8

Letting out a breath, a small cloud of ice forms in front of Pisces' mouth. Noticing the small cloud she pulls fabric from around her neck up she drapes it over her nose and mouth, leaving her slightly warmer and much more hidden. The planet of Vaonus was cold and nearly uninhabited. Nearly save for the small base of the GCA set underneath cliffs that barely protected them from the harsh, cold ice winds. Although, that small base was taken over by one of the rival corporations that challenged the peaceful government system the GCA had created. And so the GCA fought back to return those scum back to where they came from. The group of three from Battleship King are placed around the base. Two on a cliff, facing the overrun base. The third on the same cliff as the base, hugging a rock as she fought to stay on the cliff and not get blown away from the harsh winds. The small communicator in her ear is filled with chatter from her two other operatives.

Pisces sighs and rests her gun on her shoulder. "Look, if you two don't shut up this whole assassination thing isn't going to go well."

Her comment is met with sighs.

"Apologies, Pisces." Capricorn says, much quieter this time.

Pisces rolls her eyes. "It's fine, Scorpio; how's my target?"

The third member of the group speaks. "Moving around this office, he's pacing so it would probably be best if you helped him calm down."

Pisces nods. "Right, I've got knock out darts ready." She tucks the box into the strap around her waist, under the shirt. "How's my entrance?"

"Clear, guards are halfway down the bridge, you've got three minutes before they turn to head back." Scorpio says.

Capricorn clicks on. "How much time exactly?" He sounds eager.

Scorpio sighs. "Exactly 2 minutes and 56 seconds from my previous statement, at this moment you have 2 minutes and 48 seconds."

Capricorn nearly squeals. "That is _so_ cool!"

Pisces stands, dismantling her gun and attaching it to the back of her belt for safe keepings. She climbs the side of the mountain higher to drop to the front of the large base. Slipping on her favorite pair of gloves (they've got this most adorable pink color between the finger FYI) she takes a breath.

"Dropping in. Count me down once I land." Pisces orders.

Scorpio respons. "Roger that, exactly two minutes now, and I do mean exactly Cap."

A small smile appears under her mask as she rolls her eyes at her teammates before extending her arms from her sides and lifting her chin into the air. She takes another deep breath before falling forward off the cliff face and down to the front entrance of a base. As she falls, rather than screaming like she would rather, Pisces slowly lets out the air in her lungs and twists mid air. Landing she rolls forward to jump to her feet.

Before she can speak Scorpio's voice comes over the communicators. "Counting down. Minute and 56 seconds. Move quickly, there's a vent to your right, roughly nine feet away from the bridge."

Pisces nods at his directions and heads to her right. The vent is exactly where he says it is, god sometimes she hated when he was exactly right. Admittedly it did make missions go smoother, but did he always have to get times right just by watching guards for three single rotations? Tugging her gloves tighter onto her hands she presses against the backs of them, feeling the arcs of electricity from the powerful magnets on the gloves activate. Pressing her hands to the side of the building she doesn't give herself time to say a prayer in her mind before trusting in these gloves to keep her from falling off the side of the base and down to the deep, cold, icy ravine below. Pulling herself up with her arms alone she reaches the vent.

"Minute and 40 seconds, get moving." Scorpio says.

Pisces huffs. "I'm trying, it's a bit difficult to dismantle a ventilation grate with one hand while the other is holding my body onto an enemy base above a thousand foot drop to sheer death."

Scorpio huffs. "It's only a seven hundred and fiftythree foot drop, and you've got a minute and 35 seconds now."

Gritting her teeth, Pisces pulls several tools out and starts to work on the vent grate. Honestly, this was harder than she had expected. The wind was stronger than she'd anticipated and the only reason she still had the tools in her hand was due to the magnets in the gloves. Without that she'd be left hanging, literally.

Managing to get the vent off she replaces the tools in the sheath wrapped around her thigh. Pressing her other hand to the wall she lets out a breath and rests her forehead against the cold wall. Rest, that's what she needed. She'd been holding herself up with one arm for too long, her muscles weren't happy with her and this freezing cold wind wasn't helping either.

"Pisces! Have you been listening to a single thing I've been saying?" Scorpio's snapping tone forces her eyes to open in a flash.

"What?" She mutters.

Scoprio's voice sounds panicky. "Pisces, get in that vent now! You've got twenty seconds till they turn to head back."

She forces herself to climb above the vent and swings her legs inside with much effort. Landing inside she winces numby at the sound that echos around her, thankfully it's drowned out by the howling wind.

"Pi, get that grate shut." Scorpio orders.

Reaching her hand back out she grips the bars on the grate and slams it back on her, completely sealing her into the base vent.

"Got it."

Scorpio lets out a relieved sigh. "Good, now listen to me Pisces, whatever you do, do not stop moving. Understand?"

She forces her eyes open and rolls over onto her stomach and pushes away from the vent opening with a grunt. "Okay."

"I'm serious Pisces, it's negative two hundred and seventy degrees out there, the wind pushes it to negative three hundred. Don't you dare stop, got it." Scorpio snaps.

Twisting her body around she manages to face into the vent before answering. "Got it Scor, I understand. Now lead me to his office, Cap."

Capricorn joins in. "Yes ma'am, the vent you entered is about nine floors below his office so if you move forward, eh roughly ten or so feet you'll find a vent opening above you. Take that up as high as you can."

Thank god, someone who gave rough estimates, that made her feel normal. Despite the death cold that was creeping up and giving her a false sense of warmth, she moved quickly. Just where Cap said the vent would be, she found it. Turning the magnets on again she climbs up and reaches a four way break in the vents sighing she pushes her hands onto the floor of a vent and reaches an arm up, sticking her palm to the side of another vent going upwards. Lifting her body up with her single arm she climbs up, the air in the vents growing warmer ever so slowly.

"Okay Cap, where to now?" Pisces asks, holding herself up on a random vent path at the top.

Capricorn hums thoughtfully. "Okay what vent line has pipes lines on the top?"

She looks around. "This one beside me."

"Good, take that one and go past the first split. At the second split take the right." Capricorn directs.

Pisces nods and moves over to the other vent before heaving herself into the vent, crawling forward. As she moves she goes over his words in her head. Passing the first split she forces herself to go on and reaches the second split.

"You said to go right, right?" She mutters.

"Yes, go right until you reach a dead end." Cap says.

Nodding she sighs, realizing that her breath doesn't turn into a cloud anymore she thanks everything that she's finally out of the cold. Crawling forward she can spot the dead end several paces ahead.

"Cap, what's this red light in one of the joint vents?" She comments, crawling forward.

Capricorn curses. "Umm, it's a maintenance check of vents, to see if there's any kind of build up of dust or ice. Shit, I thought that this section was done and wouldn't be check again for a few hours or so…"

Pisces sighs. "Get me out of it's sights."

"Got it, umm...there's a joint on your left, you'll have to move fast. There's a drop off to a lower level. The red light is a laser and it can only travel on a single path, so it won't go down levels."

Scorpio sighs. "Move fast, Pi."

Crawling to to left she sees the drop down and tumbles inside, holding her hands on either side of the shaft, peeking out to see where the laser is. Ducking down as it passes over her head she let's out a breath and pulls herself out of the vent.

"Okay Cap, it's gone." She announces.

Cap sighs in relief. "Good, get back to the original path. Once you reach that dead end you'll find yourself directly under your target's office."

Crawling forward she twists onto her back and looks up through the thin bars of the vent. Her eyes can't see much but she can tell that the target is still pacing back and forth.

"Cap, how close is he to me?" She breaths, near silent.

Cap takes his time to answer. "He's close to his window, the heat signature seems to look like he's facing away from you. Use caution."

"I always do, don't I?"

Scorpio snorts but keeps his laughter held back at her words. Rolling her eyes, Pisces puts a mask on that covers her eyes, pulling the fabric back over her mouth and nose she sets to work on the grate. With her tools she gets the grate out of the floor she lifts it and sets it to the side. Pulling herself out of the floor she sees the target on the other side of the room, facing out the window.

Pulling her gun out she sets the pieces on the desk, bringing him to turn around. Giving him a little wave she waves her hand to the chair. "Take a seat."

He does and slowly moves his hand under his desk. Shaking her head she places a hand on the desk and swings her body over to kick the man in his chair back. He flies backwards and hits the window, bringing him to cough.

"You are not going to get out of this office alive, you do know that, don't you sir?" She comments, turning to the desk and assembling her gun easily.

The man coughs a few more times. "Who are you?"

She shrugs. "Someone sent to kill you, and I'll have you know that I've very good at my job."

"You're with the GCA, aren't you? One of Palace's soldiers!" He glares. "If that's so then my men already know that you're here. Palace does like to lead a fight with his ships, doesn't he?"

Pisces takes a seat on the man's desk and crosses her legs before gripping her gun loosely. With a grin under her mask she laughs. "Let me give you a bit of information before I kill you." She tilts her head and lifts the gun. "My order is not that of a simple soldier, take a guess."

"Zodiac." He breathes, eyes widening with the team name.

Pisces nods. "First time guesser, very impressive. Well, now that you know who I am, I'll have to kill you."

"What?" The man gapes.

Pisces pulls the trigger and watches the blood splatter against the window behind the man and his body slump forward on itself in the chair.

She sighs. "Alright, fastest route outta here is…?"

Cap responds quickly. "I would recommend two routes. Number one being you take the chance that Knight Marshall will be below to catch you should you shoot out the window of his office. Or, take your chances and just exit out the front door. I mean, you spent one bullet so according to Scorpio you've got a couple dozen bullets left so you could totally do that one."

She sighs. "Scorpio, which one is more logical?"

Scorpio groans. "I hate to say it, but the first one is. Knight Marshall is circling below the clouds in the ravine."

Pisces sighs. "I hate falling."

Lifting her gun she aims for the window. Pulling the trigger she fires shot after shot to the same area on the glass. The cracks spread and her fourth bullet shatters the glass. At this point, alarms have raised throughout the base and someone is banging on the door to the office. She turns and fires at the code pad beside the door and knocks it offline.

"Knight Marshall, this is Agent Pisces requesting pickup just below the base." She calls out onto the ear piece.

A new voice chimes in. "This is Knight Marshall, where is pick up located?"

"Trust me, you'll notice me." Pisces mutters. She walks to the window and steps over the broken glass and onto the thin ledge just outside the window. Her gloves have no use against the bare wind so she's got to keep herself perfectly balanced until she can see the ship below her.

"What the hell, you weren't kidding." The Knight Marshall comments over the ear piece.

Pisces takes a deep breath and spreads her arms, tilts her chin up and let's herself fall.


	17. Mekbuda the twins

"Tell me sir, am I losing my mind?"

It started a year or so ago, at least, that was when he really started to pay attention to it. Voices. There were voices upon voices upon even more voice circulation through his head, making him hear things he'd rather not hear and know things about people that just couldn't be true. The other kids found it more freaky than helpful when he could tell them who exactly had hidden their toy and where it was hidden. That made him a target for those he sold out.

That was the first time is was moved to a different place. This one wasn't much better, but the kids were nicer. They didn't always take and hide each other's toys but when they wanted to, they were brutal. A lot of them were older, which meant that they made the rules. And they making the rules meant that the young kids had to do their chore too.

"Hey, Tinh, why don't you clean the floors today, I heard that you tattled again!" One of the older boys smirks.

Tinh ducks his head. "Oh, okay."

'What a baby, agreeing to do girl work easily!'

The older boy seemed to shout the next words at him.

"Did you say something?" Tinh questions.

The older boy frowns. "Hu, no."

"Oh, but I'd like you to know that I'm not a baby and me cleaning floors isn't a girls job, boys can do cleaning work too!" Tinh nods to his own words.

The old boy glares. "You're a freak, you know that! Freak! Freak! Freak!"

The chant fills his ears as all of the older kids take up the chant and scream it at him. Covering his ears he finds himself curling up into a ball and trying to block out the noise of their horrible chanting.

He didn't stay there long either. Soon, the boy was moved to another place.

This one though, this one was much stricter. They had to go around with an adult and attempt to sell magazines, books, or even get themselves adopted three times a week. It was always scary coming back with nothing to show for the several hours they'd been out in the city trying to sell their books or magazines.

Not selling anything made the headmistress of the place upset and when she was upset the kids all knew it. Sometimes a kid that didn't sell anything would get put into the timeout room to do nothing all day. Tinh had been in the timeout room more than enough times to know that he didn't want to go back there again.

"You see Tinh, most kids here sells at least five magazines at day, you're lucky to seek five a week." She sighs. "And would you like to know what my most recent call was about?"

He shrugs. "No, but you're gonna tell me anyway."

She glares. "It was from a man whom you visit yesterday. You called him out that the woman in his house was married and not his wife."

Tinh swung his legs while seated in the chair and frowned. "Well, it's true."

She sighed. "Alright, you know where to go."

Nodding Tinh slipped from the seat and to the floor. He walked out of her office and down the long hallway that at the end held the lonely door that lead to the small repurposed broom closet, now know as the time out room. Other kids peeked out of the rooms that lined the walls and snickered as they watched him walk.

'Loser, that's the second this week!'

'Ha ha ha bet he cries'

Dropping his head Tinh reached up and opened the door. He stepped inside and sat on the stool and shut the door behind him.

Once the door was shut, the other kids didn't hold back their laughter. It was loud and it was obnoxious.

Sniffling to himself Tinh rested his forehead against the wall in front of him.

"I just want to fix my mind." He whispered.

The time in the time out room went slower than normal. When the director of the orphanage finally opened the door and led him to the dining hall his stomach was growling loudly.

"Alright everyone, tomorrow we will be taking a trip to the fairgrounds. I want everyone to be on their best behavior or else you have the time out room waiting for you. Understood?" She snapped.

All the kids nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Going to the fairgrounds was something to look forward to. It was a day outside of the big house and getting to see the circus and even cotton candy!

Tomorrow could come fast enough. Then Tinh couldn't get ready for the day fast enough. Everyone was rushing around and trying to get ready that it just took more time.

Finally, they reached the fairgrounds. Everyone stuck together as they looked around happily.

"What's that?" An older boy, Pollux, questioned while pointed farther up ahead.

The director frown and looked where he was pointing. "Don't point Pollux, it's rude. And I believe that's a display by the GCA under Director Palace."

"Who's that?" A girl curled her lip.

"That, is the universe's top scientist! He also controls the GCA." She responded.

Pollus whistles. "Dang, he's cool."

"So he's a big nerd?" The girl curled her lip again, somehow even more this time.

The director of the orphanage laughed. "I guess so but being a nerd is a good thing. Just means you're smart."

Still, the girl wasn't having it and huffed before looking at one of the dive games. Tinh was focused on the GCA display still. The Galactic Colonies Army was something everyone knew about, that were the police force for the habited planets and moons in the star system. They protected everyone from other systems declaring war (which happened more than you thought).

Tinh slipped away and stood at the display, staring up at the soldier suits that allowed the soldiers to do all kinds of things. They could go out into space and be comfortable and breath normally for twelve hours! The suits could handle colds down to -350 degrees and heats of 500 degrees. They were impressive.

"Mr. Palace?" Tinh called, looking around the display. "Mr. Palace?"

A few soldiers snicker as they look at him. "What's wrong little buddy?" One asked, crouching down to his level.

Tinh looked up at the large man and blinked in shock. This soldier was funny looking. He had a large scar running under his eyes and across his nose and several on his forehead and jaw. His hair was the weirdest though, he worn it in a ponytail very much unlike the traditional military cut.

Tinh swallowed. "Is Mr. Palace here?"

The soldier scratched his jaw. "I dunno kid, he was earlier but I think he took his kids around the fair."

Tinh sighed and dropped his head. "Okay, thanks."

"Wait little buddy!" The soldier called. "He'll be back soon, why don't you wait a bit, hm?"

Eyes widen in excitement, Tinh nodded. The soldier told Tinh about what the suits could do and what they couldn't do, his main issue was that it didn't filter non toxic smoke. Tinh didn't understand that but oh well.

"Do we have a new recruit?" A man asked from behind.

Turning with wide eyes Tinh looks up at Director Palace. The man was tall and has four children around him. A boy who was holding dozens of stuffed animals, most larger than him. Another boy who had a pop gun and was shooting one of the stuffed animal's foot with it. A girl who had funny looking blue hair in a ponytail. And finally a third boy who seemed very thin.

"Hello young man, my name is Director Palace. And who are you?"

"Tinh." Said Tinh.

"Tell me Tinh, what brings you here today?" Director Palace questions with a smile.

Tapping his head the boy shrugged. "I hear voices and I think my mind is broken."

"Pardon?"

"They said that you were a good scientists and a nerd, no, a smart man so I thought that you could fix my head." Tinh stared up at the man.

'Is that so? Tell me what you hear now."

Tinh blinked. "I hear you asking me questions."

"Interesting, tell me what number I'm thinking of."

"Okay…"

'739'

"Seven hundred and thirty nine. Right?" Tinh blinked.

Palace nods. "Yes, corrected. Leo, come here a moment."

The boy with the stuffed animals comes over. "Yes sir?"

Palace leans down to him. "Think of your favorite thing on King, think of it clearly."

Leo closes his eyes tight. "Okay!"

"Some kinda moving target?" Tinh mutters, the thought moving around like a bouncy ball.

Leo nods happily. "Yeah! Dude that is so cool, maybe even cooler than Aries's gift!"

Palace hushed the boy and looks Tinh over. "So Tinh, who did you come here with today?"

Tinh goes to speak before a harsh female voice shouts.

"Tinh, there you are!" It's the director of the orphanage. "Get over her right now, mister!"

Tinh blinks. "That's who."

Turning he hurries over to the woman who gives him a long and loud talking to about not wandering off and how he'd have timeout when they got back.

"Not at all, Gemini."


	18. Chapter 9

"Look, I'm just saying that if you really wanted to push them we could totally get the trainees to run the entire ship in a day."

"Course not, they're not stupid enough to do that!"

Cancer blinks. "Cap, my tall friend, the entire barracks of cadets chased Leo for two hours before he gave up on running."

"Touché."

Palace turns in his seat, looking away from the view of stars and the occasional planet that passed by. "Children please, we do have a meeting to begin."

Cancer crosses her arms. "Well he started it."

Palace rolls his eyes. "Is everyone ready to begin the meeting?"

Councilmen all nod their heads and the few who couldn't make it to King are projected overhead onto holoscreens. With everyone seated and quiet, Palace stands.

"Currently, there is a mission being carried out by my children on the planet-" He starts.

A woman on a holoscreen interrupts him. "Palace, they are not your children, they are soldiers under your command."

Palace frowns. "Yes, well, there is a mission being carried out by several members of the Zodiac on the planet Vaonus." He taps on his desk and footage from helmet cameras appear on screens around the room. "If all goes as planned the rebellion group on Vaonus that has taken over our facilities will be exterminated shortly."

A member of the board raises his hand. "How cold is it on Vaonus?"

Palace pulls up the body stats of Pisces, Capricorn, and Scorpio's suits. "Apparently it is roughly negative two hundred and seventy. Why?"

"Is it wise to send these young soldiers into such fields?" A woman frowns. "What if something were to happen?"

"Nothing will happen." Aries interjects. "Not with Pi doing the work and Scorpio running the stats in time to her actions. They'll get this done in no problem."

The woman raises an eyebrow. "Is that so? Alright then, Palace; raise the mic volume on their helmets." She sets her gaze on Aries. "Let's see if your devotion to your team is well placed."

Palace complies and sits back. They watch as Pisces perches atop of the large doors leading into the base. They're shut and locked which proves for difficult entry but there are always other ways to enter a building. Pisces extends her arms and falls forward off the frame of the door. As she lands she goes into a roll silently before looking to her right and moving to the vent.

"Counting down. Minute and 56 seconds. Move quickly, there's a vent to your right, roughly nine feet away from the bridge."

Palace types the information into a log. "And Miss. Yve, I'd like you to know that that time is exact."

Everyone watches as Pisces holds herself to the wall with a single hand and manages to get the grate undone.

"Pisces get into the grate. You've got fourth seconds."

Pisces rests her forehead onto the wall of the building, her breath hidden by the fabric she's pulled over her mouth.

"Pi?" Scorpio calls again. "Pisces!" He snaps, concern in his voice."

Another male voice joins. "Scor, what's going on?"

"Pisces is letting the cold effect her, when I tell you to run you run. Got it?"

"Run where?"

Scorpio sighs. "To Pisces. Run and grab her and get inside that vent. Whatever happens she needs to get inside."

Capricorn takes a deep breath. "Roger, standing by."

Scorpio zooms his helmet binoculars in closer to Pisces. Her eyes are shut.

"We have time for me to try again." He says, Capricorn nodding over if the footage. "Pisces! Have you been listening to a single thing I've been saying?" Scorpio's snapping tone forces her eyes to open in a flash.

"What?" She mutters.

Relieved sighs escape all of the Zodiac sitting in Palace's office. Aries shuts his eyes and prays that she gets inside that vent before anyone catches her.

Scoprio's voice echoes around them all. "Pisces, get in that vent now! You've got twenty seconds till they turn to head back."

She climbs higher before swinging into the vent and shutting it behind her. Less than five seconds later, the guards turn and make their way back down the bridge.

Palace stands and turns down the volume. "Well, is that proof enough that my soldiers are ready?"

Another chairman drums his fingers on the table and gathers everyone's attention. "Palace, the question isn't are they ready, but rather is it ready?"

Palace nods. "Yes. All tests have proven successful and it can only help our Zodiac soldiers."

"Yet the question is still there about wether it will work with their mixed blood." The chairman's many earrings clink together as he looks towards the soldier seated on the other side.

Taurus stands. "If there's something you wanna say the say it."

Libra stands as well but sets a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down and take your seat. Palace, if you'd continue."

Taurus sits and Libra follows quickly. Palace flicks the helmet cams away and puts several new images onto the screens. Several are notes but some are video files.

"What you see here everyone is the first set of implantable Artificial Intelligence." Palace stands and walks slowly around the table as he explains to everyone what's these are. "Over the years we have been able to create intelligence for androids to make them better companions, but never before have we been able to successfully implant a full AI into a fully functional human being. Cyborgs, you may claim have already done this, but can a cyborg track everything going on in their body and make precise calculations about what to do based on the situation? No. Cyborgs use machines to continue their lives. We will be bringing an AI into our daily lives."

Virgo blinks. "This is dangerous."

Palace sighs. "Yes, but we've recently been able to successfully implant an AI and throughout the past several weeks there has been no issue."

Chairwoman Yve crosses her arms. "And where is this AI and human combo? I'd like to see the evidence before I back anything."

Palace nods and clasps his hands behind his back. "Of course, now ladies and gentlemen," he glances to the Zodiac. "And my children; this is the very first AI, Castle."

A holographic figure appears over Palace's shoulder. It's glowing a dull white and lifts a hand to them all. "Hello, I am Castle. A pleasure to meet you all."

The room goes silent. Palace grins and looks at the Zodiac, ignoring the chair members. "My children, there are AIs that we have specifically designed to fit you and your blood and you gift. Castle is the base of them all but we developed the others much more. If you're willing, we have two ready to be implanted and connected."

Virgo raises her hand. "Palace, where are they implanted."

Palace shrugs. "It's random. The AI chooses its marking place and that is where we implant. These AI know it's a safe place where they mark so they will stay there."

She nods and leans back.

Leo looks over. "What two are ready to be implanted?"

Palace pulls up another note page. "We have the AI Apollo and the AI Jupiter."

"Who are they paired with?" Libra asks.

"Sagittarius and Leo, you guys are the first." He announces, voice heavy.

Everyone looks to the two in silence. Glance to his left and looking down several seats to Sagittarius the two make eye contact.

"You good?" Leo nods to Sag.

Sagittarius grins. "Course, never better."

They stand and face Palace who gets nods from most of the chair members. He waves the two boys to follow him and they do.

"I still think this is a failed experiment that isn't going to last the year." A chair member exclaims.

Palace turns. "Yes well the council voted to proceed so I'll kindly ask you all to get out of my office." He grins. "I have work to do."

The chair members stand and exit, followed by the Zodiac members.

Libra pauses at the door. "Yo Leo, tell me if it hurts, alright?"

Leo nods. "Got it, keep an eye on them while we're gone."

"Will do."


	19. Aldebaran the Follower

She was young, this world was not. There were things she didn't understand, things that didn't make sense to her. But this, this felt wrong on every inch of body. She stood, stripped down and naked in front of five women. One in the middle draped herself, in what would be elegance if not for the long pipe in her hand, on a small couch, only the back and one side raised. The four others let their eyes skim over her body, tutting behind their masks of silk and gems that were not of this planet.

One, her silk mask the color of the sunset, spoke to the woman with the pipe. "She is young."

The next, her mask and clothes the color of the ocean. "But she is without scarring,"

The woman took a drag on the pipe, blowing the harsh yet sweet smelling smoke into the air as she grinned. "Tell me child, what is your name?"

"Assyria," Her voice quivered, the women with the silk masks watching her every breath.

The woman sat up slowly, passing the pipe off to a quiet, sixth member in white silks behind her. Her eyes were golden, no doubt having been dyed to look such a color. "Assyria, beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

She dropped her head. "Thank you."

The woman snapped her fingers. "I've made my decision."

A man appeared in stunning green pants that billowed and a green silk sash tied around his hips. His body shone with oils that caught the light, every curve and dip of his body accentuated. Her young nose turned up at the sight, why would one rub oil onto their body and just leave it to sit there? It surely got sticky and annoying with the heat.

Papers were handed over to the woman with the pipe from the oil covered man in the green silks. A pen was plucked from another male, this one in purple silks, and she signed the papers with a flourish. Assyria's eyes following the blue feather that danced atop the pen as it inked the signature onto the paper.

The woman stood, she was taller then one would expect, her face was harshly beautiful. "Assyria, you are now mine. Understand?"

The young girl's eyes widen. "What?"

The woman grinned. "Your parents have just signed over your life to me. You are my property and under my authority." She waved her hand, a dismissal. "Your mentor shall be Elaine, she'll get you fitted into your outfit and teach you everything you need to know."

One of the four, the one in light purple silks, stepped forward. "Come, Assyria."

With a hand gripped around Assyria's small child wrist, she was pulled from the room of sweet and suffocating smoke and out to the courtyard. There were girls her age, older, and younger that were there. Most were dressed in silks of their own, golden bracelets and anklets weighing them down. No one sent a glance to her still bare naked body, no one here seemed to care. While Elaine kept a bone crunching grip on her wrist, she was led to the other side of the huge square building. The dark skinned woman pushed aside the ticker silk drapes and pushed Assyria into the room.

Elaine's golden hair barely had time to settle as she barked an order. "Dress her in my colors, she is students." She turned and was gone.

Inside the room was three women who were already looking her over and running a measuring tape around her hips, chest, waist, arms, anywhere and everywhere they could. They worked quickly, she barely felt their nimble fingers as they took measurements and held up different silks to her skin. Then they started working and cutting and sewing the fabrics into her new clothes.

Shifting on her feet Assyria looked around the room. Two of the four walls were covered in silk fabrics, stretching higher than any man or woman, no matter their race, could reach. There were colors she'd never seen before that were there, dyed into the silk. One pulled her to them, her grip not as tight as Elaine's had been but just as demanding. The three woman pulled a thin wrap of fabric, not silk, over her head and settled it over her chest. They then pulled pants that seemed like balloons at her calves, onto her legs.

"Watch and follow." One stood, taking silk in her hands and holding it behind her.

Assyria did the same, her small child hands making it more difficult than the woman who was trained and constantly did these motions. The silk was wound around her waist and tucked into the pants. Once it was settled there she was shown to shift it to the side, the drape of silk falling to her right side. The next strand was tossed over her shoulder, a pin of gold was pressed to the silk and then to the fabric over her chest, holding to two pieces together.

Elaide returned to the silk room, one hand holding the thick silk that served as a door to the side, her other hand was on her hip. "Come,"

She turned and disappeared again. Assyria hurried after her, not daring to be left behind. At least Elaide hadn't taken her wrist again, there was already a ring of red surrounded the thin body part. They walked, rather hurried, to the front of the square building and moved to another one, soft lighting escaping the covered windows. Smoke was blown out of several and the laughter of men and women reached her ears.

Elaide paused. "Your first lesson, learn what we do here." She took Assyria inside and held out her finger to the thin woman behind the desk. The thin woman grinned and pulled out a prick. She sunk the needle into Elaide's finger and forced the bead of blood onto a piece of paper. A time card Elaide explained as they walked.

Assyria watched as Elaide pulled a container of salve out from between her breasts and coated her finger. The young girl's eyes going wide as the prick healed in seconds. Without an explanation this time, Elaide walked into a back room and emptied item after item from the crevasse of her breasts and the waistline of her bottoms. Silently she watched as the woman placed knife after knife inside a small cubby hole. A ring of keys, several coins, and the salve tin were placed there next.

"Listen closely and you will get dinner tonight," Elaide snapped. "Keep your mouth shut and do not utter a peep, got it? You are to watch and not say a thing."

Assyria nodded.

Elaide let out a breath. "You will go inside the second wall, no one will see you but you will be able to see inside the room. My performance is in room 3A, find it in the second wall and remember…"

"Don't make a sound." Assyria finished for the woman.

A nod and then she slipped back out into the main hall. Whistles rose up and giggles at her appearance. Assyria glanced at the small door, not small enough to be a closet, but set away and in the back enough that most would over look it. She approached, hand pulling the handle and peering inside. The second wall was just that, a thin hallway between the outside wall and the wall of the rooms. Glass windows allowed anyone inside this second wall to peer inside and observe what was going on. It was tinted enough to tell that there was a painting that obscured anyone besides those who worked here to know what was really on the wall.

Numbers were above the windows, marking them in accordance to the rooms. Before she reached 3A, Assyria halted and stared through the glass. There was a woman in there, her silks of light pink and only that. No fabric covering her chest or lower body, just silk. Even from such a distance Assyria could see the darker, more pink circles on her breasts through the silk. The woman seemed so comfortable as she moved her body around a pole. There were three men there, all off them with bottles in their hands and several more discarded and empty bottles on the thin table between them and the woman.

Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, Assyria moved on to the room where Elaide told her to go. There were two men inside already, a girl between them. Even before Elaide was there their hands were on the girl's thighs. Her head was thrown back, she enjoyed the touches. Then Elaide was there, twisting and showing off her assets. Assets that even Assyria, young as she was, knew what they did to men. One of the men pushed the girl between them forward, ordering Elaide to pleasure her. At the girl's nod, Elaide was on top of her, gripping, rubbing, squeezing her hands along the girl's body. She pressed kisses everywhere but the girl's lips. Scooting back to the wall, her eyes couldn't be pulled away. One of the men joined in at some point, taking Elaide from behind, ordering her to keep pleasuring the girl under her.

She was at their beck and call, until the bell sounded and she left a kiss on the girl's neck and stood. Her top had been pushed down to her waist and she pulled it up with such grace that Assyria would believe she'd never do such things as she'd just done if she hadn't witnessed it. A hand was clamped over her mouth, had been since Elaide began. The woman pulled her bottoms up and fixed the silk skirt around her body. A bow to the three inside and then she was gone.

Assyria raced back to the door, her bare feet not making a sound on the soft, worn floor beneath. She hurried into the back room seconds before Elaide entered, fitting her hair. A long stare at Elaide, at the marks that covered her chest and arms and neck that had been left by those men. Her stomach emptied into an ear by waste bin.

Elaide stuck her nose into the air. "You will never do that again, understand? This is your life and you will work to pay off the fees loaned to your parents."

A nod. That was all she could do in response.

And so she worked. Years and years went by as she worked to pay of the loan given to her family. All her lessons from Elaide were money Assyria had to pay off on top of that. There was a never ending cycle of lessons, money, and debt inside the Eucharist Lily. Seven years she spent trying to pay of her debts, and failing. She was considered a woman now. Her breasts very much there, but still growing; Madam Camellia said. The touches, the looks, the confidence in herself that dropped every time she left one of those rooms; she hated them all.

During dinner in the courtyard of Eucharist Lily a young girl, barely thirteen was thrown to the ground by her mentor. The stinging pain deep in her belly reacted to the sight, wanting to crush the life from the mentor who snarled down at her charge. The girl had a gash on her arm from the blow before, it would only get infected now as she lay in the dirt and cobble ground. The mentor spat words, words that struck even Assyria though they weren't directed or meant for her. The cord snapped. Her anger at this mentor unleashing and the woman dropped to the ground, dead. The others were up in seconds, rushing to their fallen sister and disregarding the young girl. All of them, until they reached eighteen were nothing but charges and students to these women. They didn't matter.

The girl was gone after her arm had scared over. They hadn't allowed healing slave to be placed on her wound, not after they believed her to have killed her mentor. The wound was harsh and noticeable, it would distract from the beauty of her face Madam Camellia said.

The next time Assyria was on kitchen duty, no one noticed the knife she slipped into her top, settling under her breasts. She didn't dare breathe to deeply until she got to her room. The four girls she shared it with were in varying degrees of nakedness as they helped each other out healing salve onto the bruises left by those they'd just been with. Neither of them paid attention to Assyria as she slipped the knife out and turned to her small makeup stand. The mirror showed her face, her pretty face. Surrounded with light blonde hair that was so long that when she danced and twirled, it hovered like a second skin around her. It was entrancing to those she performed for, men and women alike. The knife was sharp, the underside of her breast could attest to that. She'd run up the stairs quickly, she paused for it with a cut that would surely stain her top.

"Assyria, come out salve on my back please. The woman I just laid with had talons for nails I swear."

Ignoring the plea of her roommate Assyria pulled the knife up to her face.

The room stilled. Her hand was shaking, impossible to make a clean cut. The top of the blade pressed to her skin and she took a deep breath. She grit her teeth as she drug the blade down, down, down. Heat of pain welled in her face and the scream she let out mixed with that of her roommates. One gripped her and tried to wrestle the knife away, but only resulted in a deep crescent cut on the same cheek Assyria had already been working on. Her eyebrow was soaked from the small but deep line she cut into her skin. Her cheek and mouth was burning as if it was on fire. One of the girls, Nessa, snatched up the knife and stuffed it under her mattress.

"No one needs to know you did this yourself." She breathed.

Fighting the grip on her shoulders as they attempted to put the salve onto her gashes, to heal her. She bite at them, snarled and fought against them. Feet pounded up the stairs and Elaide burst in, followed by three other mentors. The dark skinned woman with the golden hair gaped at her charge. Assyria's face was covered in her own blood. Elaide gripped her wrist as she'd done all those year ago and hauled the sixteen year old out of her room and down the stairs.

Madam Camellia was not happen to see her ruined face. Healers couldn't do anything, Assyria but at them, one she drew blood on. They didn't come close after that. Elaide was the one who would do it. She gripped Assyria's wrist tightly, a pop sounding from her wrist. She drug the girl out of the brothel and shoved her to the ground, just off of the territory.

"You have brought this damage upon yourself Assyria, you are no longer one of the Eucharist Lily's performers." She swallowed. "Your debt is high and until you pay it off, do not bother returning to this place."

Her words were loud, sounding out to everyone on the street. Assyria's blood boiled and she flung out her hand to Elaide. The woman's body stopped. Her knees, those knees adorn with gold bangles, buckled and she fell. Her body convolused. Back arching and bones popping and snapping loudly in the way her own wrist had done before. She was breaking her. Anger swirled around Assyria and she refused to let her mind stop her. It seemed too soon when Elaide's body slumped to the side and never moved again.

Screams filled the street. Assyria ran. Her feet carried her wherever they willed. Her face bleeding and her wrist aching. All while her mind reeling at what she'd just done. She'd killed a woman, two women, with just her thoughts.

It was months later that she came to a ship, a huge ship that belonged the the Galactic Colony Alliance, Battleship King. Legends were born here rumors said. There were soldiers, strong soldiers that rivaled even the ancient alien races of warriors. With powers as alien as hers, it seemed the best place.

"Tell me, Assyria, what can you bring to my ranks?" A man, her hair dark and hands calloused.

She sat back in the chair, her face scared over at this point. "I kill people with my mind."

His grin and laugh wasn't what she was expecting.

"In that case I have a few people for you to meet."


	20. Chapter 10

Something was burning. There was heat and steam everywhere, Leo's eyes failed him for the first time. There was nothing around him, just heat and steam. Suddenly, like a match being lit there was a sudden, burning pain on the back of his neck. Opening his mouth to spew curses he found that there was no sound escaping him. Reaching his hand to the back of his neck he searches for the spot where the pain is coming from. There's no feeling at all, almost like he's not even touching his neck with his own hands. Glancing down, Leo watches his hands and arms remain limp at his sides. He's not even moving.

The burning deepened into his skin. Soon, his whole neck felt on fire and it slowly spread down his back and chest. Once he's fully engulfed in the burning pain, it all disappears. Gasping for breath that he knows he can't get, Leo flicks his eyes around; the only thing he can move. There was nothing around him, just a vast empty white space. If even that, for all he knew he was blind.

The next time that his eyes opened he knew that time had passed since he had seen the empty, white space. His eyes hurt like hell when he forced them open, that was odd. It was like they were burning, he hadn't felt that for a long time.

Palace was the first person he saw, sitting in a chair and reading something on his tablet. He smiled without looking up from his book. "How do you feel?"

Leo lifted his hand and rubbed the space between his brows. "Headache."

"I expect that," He set the tablet down. "Leo, do you remember what we discussed before the surgery?"

Searching his mind through the raging headache, Leo fought to remember. Closing his eyes and holding pressure between his brows he nodded. "AI implants, they connect to our nerves and brain and stuff, right?"

Palace nods. "Correct. We implanted you and Sagittarius with two AIs that are built around the original; Castle."

Sitting up he was finally able to take in the rest of the room. He was in a hospital room, a large one that was reserved for higher ups. On his direct right there were four long and thin windows that covered the entire wall. A couch and a TV were set over near that wall while his bed was partially covered by a curtain on either side. Directly in front of him was Palace and another curled up in the seat.

He lifted an eyebrow at the sight. "How long has she been there?"

Palace didn't need to look to know who Leo was talking about. "Let's see, you went into surgery four days ago so...She's been here for four days."

Small flames appeared on the tips of his ears, they went unnoticed. Leo's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. "She's been here for four days? What possessed her?"

Palace laughs. "You fail to realize this Leo, but Aquarius cares about you." His voice was soft, looking over at the bluenette. "You were her first friend on this ship and she has never forgotten that."

Leaning back into the pillows Leo let out a breath of air. "Damn."

Palace stands. "She wakes up when she hears the door, so I'll be leaving now." He strode to the door and set his hand on the handle. "You may want to extinguish your flames; you have better control then that.

Before Leo could stop him, Palace yanked the door open and stepped out, shutting it just as Aquarius's eyes opened. Before she could realize that he had flames flickering on his ears he batted them away, reigning the burning flames deep inside him. Aquarius blinked several times adjusting to the light but once she saw Leo sitting up, she uncurled from the chair and sat properly.

"How do you feel?" She asked, hands on her knees.

She had scabs on her knuckles, she'd been conditioning her hands recently but not continuously. Probably a few days since she had earned the scabs. Once she noticed where his eyes fell she crossed her arms, pulling her hands under her arms, concealing them from his view.

Leo looked up at her and gave single nod. "Good, I feel good."

Aqua leaned back. "That's good."

And so silence fell. Leo sneezed loudly and his hands caught fire. He cursed and pulled the flames back in, what was happening to him? Aquarius had crossed her legs and was looking at him, analyzing him.

"They figured this would happen," She smirked. "I never thought it would be this funny though."

He glared. "Shut up."

Her smirk only turned into a grin. "What? Upset that you've lost control of your gift?"

Looking away he crossed his arms, so what if he seemed childish. "I have not lost control."

Raising her delicate eyebrows she simply pointed at his head. Glancing up, Leo's face grew red as he saw the smoke rising from his body. Cursing, he focused on controlling his steadily rising temperature. Aquarius didn't say anything else, save for grins and smirks sent his way.

The door reopened and in walked several doctors, all with clipboards filled thick with papers. His stomach grew queasy as he watched them move around with careful steps. This was all too familiar, he didn't like it. As if she sensed that he was uncomfortable or she was just as uneasy as him, Aquarius stood and moved through the doctors and came beside him.

One doctor pushed his glasses to the top of his head. "How do you feel? Any pain?"

"I feel like shit." Leo grumbled. It was true, his muscles screamed in agony at every move he made; he felt like he'd just run the entire battleship three times over.

The doctor jotted that down. "Pain?"

He pointed to his back. "All back there."

Three doctors moved around and one hesitated to slip beside Aquarius. He didn't blame them, she was deadly and scary at all times. Aquarius prodded his side, without care for the shoot of pain that shot through him, and held her finger poised to deliver another poke. "Move over."

Despite the muscles that groaned and screamed in agony, Leo shifted over to the side of the bed, Aquarius nodded before taking a seat on the edge. The young doctor let out a breath of relief as they were able to move in and observe Leo's back.

"The mark is healing nicely, scabbed over and nearly scarring." A doctor announced.

Everyone wrote that down onto their clipboards, flicked through the stacks of papers and wrote it several more times.

The head doctor nodded and clicked his pen closed and tucked it into his back pocket. "Alright, summon the AI."

The shuffling of the three doctors behind him and then two were holding his shoulders. Aquarius tensed and he went to ask her why she was so tense when blinding pain filled his body. One of the doctors had touched the wound on his back and it all went to hell. The tight leash he always kept on his gifts sprung loose. His brown hair shifting to a golden until more pain, this one digging into his skin from the outside.

His vision shifted and his eyes opened. The room was swimming with the pain he felt. He back felt on fire, and knowing his gifts; it very well could have been. But the pain that had pulled him back from letting loose of his control was a blade digging into his forearm. He turned to the side to see what, rather who, had stabbed him.

Aquarius' blue eyes were a stormy blue, like the Ocean planet of Failara when it's seas were black with the churning storms. She pulled the blade out, stood from the bed, and walked to the door. She turned back and glared at him with those stormy eyes. "Never let your hold loosen that much, Leo."

Then she was gone. He blinked, not even setting a hand over the wound in his arm. His blood stained the hospital cot he was on as well as the blankets. The doctors were silent until his back seared in pain again.

"Artificial Intelligence ready to report."

The head doctor blinked, in what seemed to be shock, and pulled his glasses down to his nose as he stared at something beside Leo. The something that had just _talked_.

"Name?" The doctor barely breathed.

That thing, whatever it was Leo didn't want to turn and look. "Apollo,"

Scribbling filled the air and the doctors all wrote down what he was saying. They kept asking it questions, and the voice that seemed so real, yet so, so distant from life responded each time. It was like one of the androids that tended to things on King. Each of them could speak, but they didn't sound human, didn't have the right tone. The closest android voice to human voice had to be Freya. Even her voice had the distant tone to it that he didn't quite like.

"I am confused, am I watching two people?" The voice beside him said.

The doctors frowned and looked at Leo with high brows and wide, confused eyes. His own were still and unmoving. Never, never had anyone besides his elite team and Palace ever known what kind of beast was slumbering inside of him. No one until this AI was implanted into him. He'd willingly do the surgery, known what exactly was to happen but he hadn't know it was going to be like this. Was every nook and cranny of his brain and thoughts open to this AI.

At long last, despite his internal voice telling him not to, Leo turn his face to the side. Sitting with legs crossed and an elbow propped on their knee, fist holding their head up; was a holographic figure. It cast a sideways glance at Leo and with it's other hand gave a peace sign. "Yo."

Leo would never admit that he screamed.

The doctors had left after that and were scared enough not to tell a soul what had just happened. If he caught word he would surely make them regret anything they had breathed about this time.

Minutes passed and he was still staring at the weird holographic figure. The AI stared right back at him. It wasn't a challenging stare, more of a _what-the-hell-is-going-on_ kind of stare.

Finally the AI spoke. "Name's Apollo, which name should I call you by," The AI paused, image ruffling before stabilizing. "Do you prefer Leo or Agni-"

"Leo." He interrupted the AI from saying that damned name. "I go by Leo and nothing else."

Apollo the AI grinned. "Well then Leo and nothing else, perhaps you could explain to me what exactly is slumbering inside you." He blinked. "Because it sure isn't friendly."

Leo glanced around the room. "It's a familiar."

The AI shuttered so much that his form wasn't recognizable for several seconds before he stabilized. "A familiar...like the ones the Slieph people once possessed?"

A nod.

"But they were wiped out by The Purified close to two decades ago…" The holographic glanced at Leo. "How old are you?"

Leo's throat felt as if it was stuffed with cotton. "18."

The figure let it's body sag. "Damn,"

It's form rippled and then shuddered out of sight. Leo twisted, ignoring his muscles that told him to lay still and to not move too much. Where had that thing gone?

"Oi, get the hell out here pipsqueak, we've got talking to do." Leo snapped.

The door opened. Standing there was Libra, arms crossed loosely and Cancer, spinning a dagger across her palm and fingers effortlessly.

"If you're shouting at thin air already then I want whatever drugs they're giving you." She teased, tossing the knife up and catching it by the hilt and stuffing it into the sheath it belonged to.


End file.
